Shinobi Wars
by illjwamh
Summary: The major shinobi villages of the world are now at war. Naruto and his comrades find themselves in the thick of the conflict as they begin growing up, honing their abilities, and dealing with their own problems. Sequel to Koorikage.
1. Prologue: Jounin

Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I pretend to own any of the characters or settings etc. from the manga/anime known as _Naruto_. Anything you find in the following pages that can't be seen therein have been created by me, for the purposes of this fic, or in some cases shamelessly based on other pop-culture figures I'm sure you're familiar with. Any similarities between this fic and any other are purely coincidental, as I started planning this long before I ever read anybody else's fanfiction and I'm not about to change my ideas because somebody else thought of it too. Odds are, if there are any such similarities, I'm not even aware of it.

Illjwamh's Hello: Hiya, all! How ya been? Today marks the beginning of one of the longest experiences of your life – waiting for me to finish a story that's easily three times the length of _Koorikage_. How long this will take, I have no idea. I'm in a groove right now, but I never know how long those'll last, or how much time will pass between them. I might write four and a half chapters in the next six days and not get another word down for the next three months. But let's not talk about that.

Man, I'm so excited for this thing. There's some awesome stuff happening in this story, and I can't wait to get to it. Odds are more things'll emerge through the process as well. I sincerely hope you have as much fun with this as I plan to, no matter how long it takes. Let's get started, then.

NOTE: If you haven't read _Koorikage_, there will be events and characters included and referenced throughout this fic that you will not be familiar with. You could probably get by anyway, but I recommend hitting it first. It won't take you long, and you'll get this story a lot better. Besides, I like to think it's a pretty good read in itself, though I may be biased.

THE FOURTH SECRET WORLD WAR

Prologue – "Jounin"

Ino couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her father had just returned from the administration tower after a meeting that had lasted all night to inform her that Konoha was at war, and that three of the other Kage-level villages were against them. He was now telling her that Shikamaru and Sakura's team had barely managed to escape the initial assault on Yukigakure no Sato, and somehow prevent – or at least postpone – an attack on Konoha itself. He kept going, presumably about what the preliminary plans already being laid out were going to be, but she had stopped listening, dropping into a chair to try processing what he'd just told her. War. They were at war. Again. And outnumbered by enemies they couldn't hope to defeat, even with the help of the Sand, which she could only pray they would receive.

"Ino? Ino?" Her father was looking at her with a concerned expression.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," she said absently. What was going to happen? What were they going to do?

"If you'll pay attention to me for a minute, I'll tell you what we're going to do," her father said, crossing his arms. That got her attention.

"Daddy! How dare you use that jutsu on me!" she yelled at him indignantly. It didn't really do her any harm, but she didn't like the idea of anyone looking at her thoughts, even her own father.

"Will you listen, then?" he said. "I was telling you how the council has already sent two hawks to Sunagakure, and that messages are being drawn up as we speak to send to every shinobi village that is friendly or neutral toward us and not allied to our enemies, explaining this situation and petitioning for help. As soon as the Hokage returns, plans will be put in motion to send emissaries to the villages who will receive them. With luck, now that their initial strike has been parried, the enemy won't attack for a while. They'll need time to reconvene and reorganize as well."

That made Ino feel a little better, but her stomach was still jumping up and down and she still felt like passing out or vomiting – she wasn't sure which. At least she could think again.

"You said 'When the Hokage returns'," she said, repeating her father's words. "Does that mean there's already a plan in motion to get her and the others out?"

"Two chuunin, whom I believe you know, have already left for the Hidden Snow Village. Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino," her father said. That didn't really make much sense.

"Kiba and Shino? Why them?" she asked, perplexed. "I mean, they're not bad or anything, but I can think of better ninja to send in. And like you said, they're only chuunin. And there's only two of them."

"At this point, two ninja probably have a better chance of infiltrating the siege than a larger number anyway," her father said sagely. "As for why them, they left of their own volition. Shikamaru and his team encountered them before even returning to the village. When they heard what had happened, they left without hesitation." Of course. It made perfect sense now.

"Hinata," Ino said, as soon as it dawned on her. "They're going because Hinata is still there." She couldn't help but smile. "Those two really do look out for her." An admirable trait, even if they possessed no others.

"Well, that may be," her father replied, frowning slightly. "But if they manage to make it in, the Hokage will know that Shikamaru's team made it back safely and the attack has been averted for the time being. She will be able to plan accordingly."

"Are we relying on just them, then?" Ino asked, not believing it for a second.

"No, we're not," her father answered. "A rather sizable force is being sent at first light tomorrow, with everything we can spare and still be prepared for a possible attack here. Shikamaru will be leading them, as he has commanded two missions to the Snow Village before, and is most familiar with the terrain and the current situation."

Ino's eyes shot wide open. "Shikamaru?" She shrieked. "You've got to be kidding me! He just barely got back from that place! And they're sending him out again?" She didn't know who she wanted to strangle – the council, for sending him, her father, just for telling her about it, or Shikamaru himself for going along with it. Did the idiot have a death wish in the Snow, or something?

"He's the only one capable of it. Hyuuga Neji and Haruno Sakura expended more chakura than their bodies could handle and are in no condition to be going anywhere. They nearly collapsed upon reaching the village as soon as the adrenaline wore off. Uzumaki Naruto, while a capable ninja in his own right, is not the type to be trusted leading a mission like this." Well, he was right about that, anyway. Naruto was a great ninja, but a leader he wasn't. "The only other two ninja to have been to the Hidden Snow," her father continued, "Rock Lee and Tenten, are not familiar with the current situation, the layout of the enemy camp, and other such important factors. Shikamaru is the only choice. I assure you, I'm no happier about it than you are, and Shikaku and Yoshino are fairly upset as well." He finished by giving her a gesture that said there was nothing they could do about it.

Ino stood abruptly out of her chair, arms held rigid at her sides. "Upset?" She shrieked. "They're _upset_? Their son is being sent into one of the most dangerous situations imaginable, after just barely escaping from it, and they're _UPSET?_"

"Ino," her father began in a lecturing tone, "they aren't happy about it, obviously. But Shikamaru is a shinobi. They are too. They know what that means, and so does he. You should, too."

She couldn't believe her father would throw that in her face. Of course she knew what it meant to be a shinobi. But there was a difference between doing your duty, and being made to shoulder more than you should have to. Shikamaru had already done more than could ever have been expected. Did they really think it was fair to make him do it again? She had to…she had to talk to him. Right away. Without saying another word to her father or even waving goodbye, she bolted from her family's home and ran across the village as fast as she could. There had to be something she could do. Something.

-

Naruto sat in the hospital room where Sakura was still sleeping. In the thirty-six hours they'd been home, she hadn't woken up for more than three minutes at a time. She and Neji had collapsed from chakura exhaustion almost immediately after they'd made their report the previous day. He probably should have seen it coming. Neji, what with that constant use of his Byakugan for five days straight, not to mention going toe to toe with Kurowaza Tourou – and putting up a pretty good fight from what Shikamaru had said. And of course there was Sakura. He'd noticed she'd been getting tired. He should have put the pieces together. He was furious with himself that he hadn't, but at least she was okay, and there was that thing she'd said to him before…he couldn't bring himself to believe he was remembering it correctly. He had to talk to her about it.

"_If I'm not willing to put my life on the line for those people who are precious to me, then I don't deserve to call myself a ninja any more than you would if you didn't. And…my most important person…is you."_

She had said that. Her most important person was him, Uzumaki Naruto. Never in his wildest dreams did he allow himself to hope she would ever say that to him. The most he'd hoped for was that she would be his friend and care about him even half as much as she'd cared about Sasuke. He'd even been content with those hopes, because with Sakura-chan, it would be enough. And he'd had that, too, and been happy with it. But now…what did this mean for them now? Would things be different than before? How long had she felt that way? Did she really even mean it, or was it just something she said in the heat of the moment to try and talk him into letting her stay? It was eating him up inside, and even though there were a hundred things going on at that very moment that he knew were more important, he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Naruto?" he heard her voice all of a sudden and was jerked out of his thoughts to look down at where she was blinking awkwardly, trying to adjust her vision. "Naruto?" she called again. "Where are you?" He'd been there the first time she'd woken up – for only thirty seconds – and when she woke again a few hours later and he'd been in the bathroom, she'd become fairly distraught. He made sure to leave a shadow clone in the room at all times now if he had to leave for any reason.

"I'm right here, Sakura-chan," he said, reaching out and taking her hand. He'd never had to wait on _her_ in the hospital before, and had been completely unprepared for how nerve-racking it would be.

"I think," she started to say, having to pause to take a deep breath before continuing, "I think I'm doing better now," she said. She took another deep breath and opened her eyes fully this time, focusing on him. She definitely seemed more lucid than any of the other times she'd woken up. Still, he didn't want to take any chances.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Maybe I should get one of those medical ninja in here."

She laughed softly and smiled at him. Well, that was a good sign, anyway. "Naruto, I _am_ a medical ninja," she said. "I haven't finished my training yet of course, but I know enough to recognize when the effects of chakura exhaustion have worn off."

"If you say so, Sakura-chan," he said, still doubtful. Sure, she'd managed some pretty amazing stuff back in the Snow village – stuff he never would have thought she'd be capable of after only a couple of months of training – but it wasn't anything every ordinary medical trainee wasn't expected to do in their first year. And he couldn't help wanting a more…experienced practitioner to tell him she was all right. But he'd take her word for the time being.

"How long have I been asleep?" she asked him.

"Since yesterday," he said. "I'm not sure how long it's been exactly, but it was before noon when we got here then and it's after noon now." He could see her processing that information in her head, and then she nodded.

"Well, that's not too bad," she said. "It could have been a lot worse. And we all made it back okay." Then she suddenly sat bolt upright, as if just realizing something. "Naruto! The village! Was it attacked? Did the enemy-"

"No, we're all right for now," he cut her off and she relaxed visibly. "Kakashi-sensei came by earlier and said that an expedition is being sent first thing in the morning, and that scouts are already out to see if there are any enemy in the area. We messed up their plans good, I think." He grinned broadly, and she smiled back at him. He loved that smile.

"So they're going to get Tsunade-shishou and the others out, are they?" she asked. "That's good. Hopefully they can do some damage to the enemy ranks at the same time."

"Yeah," he nodded in agreement. Then he remembered something. "Hey, Sakura-chan! You'll never guess who's leading the expedition!"

"Eh? Who?"

"Shikamaru!" he said excitedly. "He's going to be bossing jounin around!"

"What? Shikamaru?" She sounded genuinely shocked. "I can't believe they're sending him right back there after all that's happened! Oh, Ino won't like this at all."

"Shikamaru isn't very happy about it either," Naruto replied, snickering. "He was in here earlier grumbling about it."

"I don't blame him!" Sakura said firmly. "He deserves a rest after what we just went through, and to make that trip again? He'll be exhausted! And that will make it more likely for him to be killed!"

"He'll be all right," Naruto assured her. "Kakashi-sensei said Asuma was one of the jounin going along. You know he'll look after Shikamaru."

"Well, you might be right about that," she conceded. "Still, I'm worried. And I'm worried about what Ino will do, too. She can get kind of protective sometimes."

"Hmm…" Naruto pondered. "I haven't heard about her doing or saying anything, but that's because I've been in here. All of what I know came from Shikamaru, Kakashi-sensei and Fuzzy Eyebrows."

"Lee-san was here?" Sakura asked, brightening. Naruto felt a twinge of something, but answered her question.

"Yeah, he was here. He was wailing about how he'd failed to protect you or something, even though he wasn't even there, and me and that Tenten girl had to wrestle with him to calm him down. He said he's going along on the mission, though. And Tenten. They know the Snow village pretty well, so that's probably good. And then they left to go see Neji, and Fuzzy Eyebrows got all upset again before they even walked out the door."

Sakura was still smiling. "That sounds like Lee-san," she said. Then she got serious again and asked him something he hadn't even thought about yet. "What about you, Naruto? You're going too, right?"

"Huh?" he said quizzically. "I don't know. Nobody came and told me I was, and I haven't asked. I didn't want to leave here until you were awake." He got to see that smile again, and it made his insides warm. He didn't know what it was about that particular expression, but it always made him feel like something special was going on.

"Arigatou, Naruto," she said. "But I'm fine now, and if you want to go, then you should. I know you're worried about Tsunade-shishou too."

"Haha!" he laughed. "The old hag can take care of herself! But I am worried about her a little, I guess, and Shizune-san, and Hinata-chan. And it would be an exciting mission. Maybe I'll go see if I can go along…if you're sure you're okay?"

"Of course I am, you idiot!" she said, shoving him. "I said I was, didn't I? Now go, already! I'll be here when you get back." She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow in a way that brooked no argument. Forced to give in to her as always, he sighed and nodded.

"Okay, I'll go," he said. "And we'll be back before you know it! Fastest trip to the Snow ever!" He raised a fist in the air to emphasize his boast. She smiled at him one more time, but it seemed…strained. She probably needed more sleep.

"Be careful," she said, "and make sure everyone gets out safely."

"Right!" And so he left, and therefore didn't see the tearful look in Sakura's eyes as he walked out the door, or the way she wrapped her arms around herself once she was sure he wasn't coming back.

-

Asuma stared in wonder at one of the most bizarre spectacles he'd seen in some time. The village council was being railed at by a sixteen year-old chuunin, and no one was saying anything. The Uzumaki boy had approached them earlier, saying he wanted to be sent along on the mission to rescue the Hokage and the others. The council, who'd never trusted the boy as much as the Hokage for reasons he could understand even if he no longer agreed with, had refused. And so the yelling started. For ten minutes now Naruto had been making his case with the council – making several good points – and for ten minutes they'd rebuked him every time with arguments of how they'd already made their decision and mere chuunin were not to question the discretion of the council. The strangest part was that the purportedly wise council members were coming off as much more immature than the adolescent chuunin they were rebuking for just that.

Finally, the head councilman apparently reached the end of his patience. "ENOUGH!" he shouted, banging his hand down on the table he was seated behind. "Uzumaki Naruto, if you persist in arguing with this council in this manner, you will be incarcerated until such time as the Hokage returns and you can be dealt with accordingly. Furthermore, you have delayed the briefing of this mission's commanders, for which you will be further punished regardless. Now, if that's dealt with, we can move on to more important-"

"If Naruto doesn't go, I won't go," came a voice to Asuma's left, which shocked even him…but not very much. He looked to see Shikamaru standing casually with his hands in his pockets and addressing the council as if a class of academy students.

"What did you say?" the council head demanded dangerously.

"If Uzumaki Naruto is not allowed to come on this mission, then I refuse to go, either. You'll have to find somebody else to lead it for you." Asuma allowed himself a tiny smirk. Shikamaru could be fiercely loyal to those he considered close friends, and he knew his student respected Naruto's skills a great deal as well. This would be interesting.

"Young man, you are in no position to make such demands," the council head said. "You are a chuunin, and therefore you will go where we tell you, when we tell you."

"Except if I refuse, there's really nothing you can do," Shikamaru said coolly. "You can't make me go, and if you hold me for insubordination, you're still without a leader for the mission who's familiar with the terrain and current scenario. Except for Naruto himself, of course. He and I have worked together many times, and I know I can trust him. Furthermore, he's more than capable of handling himself on a mission like this, and we could definitely use his help. I don't know why he wasn't assigned to it in the first place, but the fact remains that if he doesn't go, I don't go either."

The council sat dumbstruck, and Asuma decided he might as well help his student out.

"And if Shikamaru doesn't go, I don't go," he said.

"And if Asuma doesn't go, I don't go," added Kurenai from his right. He knew that much was probably a lie. All three members of her team were either in Yukigakure or on their way there, and she would have volunteered for this mission whether they'd asked her to go or not. But he appreciated the gesture. And he knew they wouldn't want to sacrifice him, either – the leader they'd placed over Shikamaru in all aspects but tactics. They were stuck. And from the looks on their faces, they knew it. Short of announcing their real reason for holding Naruto back from this mission – something which they were forbidden by law to do – there was nothing they could do.

"Very well," said the council head at last. "But all four of you will face an inquiry for insubordination upon your return. Now that that's finally settled, would Uzumaki Naruto please leave the room so we can complete this command briefing?" Naruto flashed a cheeky grin at the council, and turned to leave. He made sure to walk by Shikamaru and whisper his thanks on his way out. Shikamaru didn't say anything. Asuma smirked again. The boy would be glad to know the loyalty he'd just exhibited had been shown toward him not an hour before. He'd never say anything about it either way, of course.

-

Kiba and Shino forged their way through the snowy forests of the Ice Country as they made their approach on Yukigakure. Traveling at a maddening pace, they'd made the journey in just over four days. Shino had voiced concern that there weren't any bugs in this environment for him to use as eyes and ears, but to Kiba this was only a minor concern. He knew Shino could handle himself well enough. He himself was working under a handicap as well; smells traveled less and were fainter in the cold.

Despite this, he had no doubts that they would succeed. Kurenai-sensei had always taught them that what had to be done could be done so long as you possessed the will. And they had the will. They were going to get Hinata out of there. And the Hokage, and the others.

"The entrance to the tunnel that Nara Shikamaru told us about should be about a kilometer ahead," Shino said suddenly. So they were there at last.

"The enemy probably knows it's there by now," Kiba said. "But we can still use it. If we can get close enough, Akamaru and I can dig into it from the side."

"Will that save us any time?" Shino asked skeptically.

"As long as we can get to within a hundred meters of it," Kiba said. "And it's safer than trying to get into the village directly."

"You might be right," Shino conceded. "Let's veer off here, then." He pointed slightly to the left of where they were headed, and turned to continue on in that direction. A few minutes later he stopped and marked out a spot on the ground.

"I have not detected any enemy ninja, but that does not mean none have detected us. We must hurry. Dig here"

"I didn't notice anything either, and neither did Akamaru," Kiba agreed. "They're probably monitoring the entrance, but they shouldn't notice if we join it part way on. Just make sure to disguise the entrance to the hole we're digging once you get in."  
"I will do my part. You do yours."

"All right! Ready, Akamaru?" Akamaru barked softly, and Kiba pulled up his sleeves and started digging next to his partner. They were fast, and in only a few minutes they'd dug enough to conceal both themselves and Shino underground.

"The entrance is concealed," Shino announced from behind them. "How long until you reach the tunnel?"

"At this pace, if it's a hundred meters like you said, we should be there in about twenty minutes. I'd use ninjutsu, but it's too risky with so many enemies around."

"Indeed."

And so he and Akamaru dug on in silence, until at last he detected a hollowness in the ground ahead of him. His canine partner was now bigger than he was, so the digging had not taken very long.

"We're about there," he told Shino. "Are you able to send through any bugs to make sure it's clear?"

"Yes, I can." He did so, and after another minute declared it safe to continue. Kiba broke through the few centimeters of earth remaining and stuck his head into a long, dark passageway.

"I can't really see anything," he said, "but this is definitely what we're looking for. Left, right?"

"Yes, that is correct," said Shino. And so they traveled in silence once more, until Akamaru growled softly from ahead of them that they were nearing the exit, and he smelled sweat and chakura.

"There's no way to know if they're friendly or not," Kiba said, stopping to think.

"I will investigate again," replied Shino, reaching out to send bugs through the exit. Several minutes passed.

"What's taking so long?" Kiba demanded. "Are they friendly or not?"

"I cannot say with certainty," Shino said. "We would be best to assume them hostile and proceed accordingly." Which of course meant subdue them immediately, and kill them only upon confirmation of hostility.

"On three then," Kiba said. "There's two of them, so I'll break left and you break right." He waited for Shino to nod before he began the count. "One. Two. Three." They burst from the hole as swiftly and as silently as all their years of training had enabled them. Shooting straight for the shinobi on the left, whose back had been facing him when he left the tunnel and had spun to face him by the time he took his first steps outside of it, he saw the four wisps representing mist on his target's _hitae-ate_, and the need for subduing was gone. Kunai drawn, he let fly right as the Mist ninja was opening his mouth to call for help. His opponent blocked easily, just as he'd planned, and so was completely unprepared for the second kunai hidden in the shadow of the first that struck him in his now-open mouth. That's what they got for letting low-level chuunin stand guard.

He turned to see how Shino had fared, and saw what he'd come to expect from his teammate over the years: one dead enemy ninja, and the Aburame heir standing there calmly as if nothing had happened at all.

"Where to from here?" Kiba asked. "If everyone's in hiding like Shikamaru said, there's probably more of them all around the village."

"That works to our advantage," Shino said. "They will be in small groups that we will be able to deal with if necessary, and we will be decreasing the number of enemies at the same time. As for where to go, instructions have all been written on the map Nara Shikamaru provided. The tower in the center of the village is our goal, and he's shown us the fastest, most concealed way to it."

Kiba grinned. Trust Shikamaru to make every aspect of your mission as easy as possible. "Let's get going, then," he said.

It was slow going, as there were indeed enemy patrols from all four enemy nations spread all throughout the village. Twice they'd encountered a patrol they couldn't avoid and had to attack. Luckily, both of those had been two-man squads, and chuunin to boot. Unluckily, it would not be long before those patrols were missed, and their enemies became aware that someone was causing trouble.

"How much farther?" Kiba asked after the third patrol of five they'd come upon in three minutes passed by without incident.

"We're nearly there," Shino said, consulting the map. "We cannot see it from where we are, but once we round the building across from the one we're in, we will be across the street from the tower."

"All right, let's move. Another one of those patrols could come by any second and I don't want to push our luck any further."

Shino said nothing, but he followed Kiba out of the building to press against the one across the street. Scanning around for enemies, Kiba shot along the wall and stopped just short of the corner, where he and Akamaru both sniffed and Akamaru peered around slowly. Clear. He signaled to Kiba, who followed, and then they found themselves looking at the entrance to the central tower. One quick break would get them there, but he wasn't about to lower his guard because the finish line was in sight. That was the sort of rookie mistake he'd stopped making years ago.

Sending Akamaru across first to scout – few people ever suspected a stray dog, more the fools they were for it – he waited for the all-clear bark before dashing across himself. Shino was a half-step behind. He made the sign for "enter," and they performed the maneuver simultaneously. Still no sign of anyone.

"We need to go to the basement," Shino said, and they looked for a door. An alarmed bark from Akamaru was all the warning they had before three shinobi with snowflakes on their _hitae-ate_ dropped out of nowhere, stopping a hair short of killing them.

"We're Leaf ninja!" Kiba announced as quickly as he could. No time for formalities here. These three were in a whole other class altogether. One wore a long coat and had a straight-looking sword drawn from the sheath on his left side. He had spiky hair and a nose like a hawk's beak. The second was a ridiculously large-muscled man wearing a vest and no weapons at all aside form spiked knuckle-braces, and the third was a stunning woman with a white kimono cut off at the waist and patterned with lotus and sakura blossoms, wielding the largest scythe he'd ever seen. Had he still been a rookie, he would have lost control of his bodily functions.

"We know you are," said the woman in a very melodious voice. "Or at least that you claim to be. We saw your _hitae-ate_ as we were descending on you. Otherwise you'd be dead."

"Prove you are leaf ninja," the burly man said, standing up straight and letting the other two hold them where they were. The hawk-nosed fellow had his sword on Shino, and something that looked like an ice pick, too, while that monstrous scythe was trained on his own neck.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Kiba growled. He hated not being in control of a situation.

"You have some companions here, do you not?" the big guy said. "Can you name them?"

"If no more than Yamashiro Aoba have perished, then Shiranui Genma, Shizune, and our teammate Hyuuga Hinata are here. And the Hokage, of course," Shino said as calmly as ever.

"You're Hinata's teammates?" the woman asked. She sounded genuinely interested. "She'd a lovely girl. So that must mean the two of you are-"

"Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino," Kiba finished for her. No better way to prove who you were than saying it before someone told you.

"Yes, that's right," she said. "And you must know Naruto-kun as well. He's a very polite young man."

Kiba snorted. He thought he even heard Shino make some kind of sound. Even considering their situation, that was just too ridiculous and he couldn't help himself. "Oh, please, that loudmouthed idiot?" He cried. "If he's been polite to anyone a day in his life, I'll eat that scythe of yours." Surprisingly, she smiled and pulled said scythe away form his neck, replacing it in its holster on her back. The hawk-nosed guy had taken his weapons off of Shino too, and he and the big guy were also smiling.

"You're Leaf ninja, all right," the woman said, nearly laughing. Kiba almost choked.

"You're kidding!" he shouted indignantly. "If that's all it took, why didn't you just compliment Naruto to begin with?"

"Oh, I have nothing but compliments for Naruto-kun," the woman said seriously. "It just so happens that politeness is not among them."

"Well, I guess that sounds about right," Kiba admitted sourly. Annoying as he could be sometimes, Naruto was still a pretty good guy, and a good friend.

"Now that we know who you are, please allow us to introduce ourselves," the woman continued. "I am Sabu Sora, and this is my older brother Daiichi, and my younger brother Kenji." She pointed to the big guy and the hawk-nose guy respectively. Their names seemed to fit them, in any case. "As you no doubt have surmised, we have been assigned to guard the entrance to the Hole, which no doubt is your destination. Kenji will take you there."

"The Hole?" Kiba asked, confused.

"It's what we call our last resort refuge," Kenji explained. "There's only one way in and one way out." Kiba knew that was a lie – there was always another way out – but understood why they wouldn't want to talk about it. It was a secret. "The whole village has been down there for a week, and it's starting to get rough. Your comrades are down there as well, along with the Kazekage and his delegation from the Sand."

"Do you have a message for your Hokage?" Daiichi asked. "Is that why you have come?"

"Actually, we came because of our teammate," Kiba said. "A stronger force is on its way to help break the siege and secure the Hokage, but Hinata is what's important to us."

Sora smiled at them warmly. She had a great smile. "Then you shouldn't keep her waiting," she said. Agreeing wholeheartedly, Kiba followed Kenji through a door they hadn't noticed, with Shino close behind.

"You guys are really devoted to your teammate," Kenji said over his shoulder after they'd gone a ways down a dark, sloping staircase.

"What's so unusual about that?" Kiba asked.

"Nothing, I guess," the taller man said, "It's just nice to see is all. So you guys are friends of Naruto-kun? Or do you just know him?"

Naruto-_kun_ again. That guy really did seem to leave a mark on people. "I guess you could say we're his friends. He'd definitely say that, anyway." Naruto generally considered anyone who spoke normally to him on a semi-regular basis a friend. But Kiba was pretty sure he himself really did qualify, and probably Shino, too. And he of course considered Naruto to be _his _friend, which was something he would have thought absurd only four years ago.

"That's good to know," Kenji replied, stopping at a large stone slab leaning against a wall. He turned to face them and planted a wide grin on his face. "Any friend of Naruto-kun's is a friend of mine," he said, and pushed the slab aside to reveal the largest cave Kiba had ever seen.

Large enough to hold half of Konoha, and tall enough to contain the Hokage's tower with room to spare, the cavern was lined with a combination of torches and electric lights along its walls, which were also spattered with glacial blue icicles. Massive stalactites hung from the ceiling, but any stalagmites that may once have been there had been removed, and the floor was smooth and clean. To his right, he heard a humming generator, which made sense – they wouldn't want electric wires leading out to reveal their hiding spot; the place was totally self-contained. And there were people everywhere.

"How long did you say you've been in here?" Kiba asked, wrinkling his nose. He'd heard the first time, but the smell of people was so strong, he wanted to double-check.

"A week," Kenji repeated. "And if you can tell right away, it really is getting bad. We've been attacked three times since the initial assault, and now we've lost so much ground that we can't even go above into the village at all anymore."

"You haven't tried to break the siege?" Kiba asked, surprised.

"We tried once, two days ago, but were repelled quickly and suffered too many losses to try again soon," Kenji said, his expression slipping. "To be honest, the news that an expedition from the Leaf is on its way is the best news we've had since this whole thing started."

"Kiba-kun?" asked a familiar voice from not far off. Immense feelings relief and elation washed over Kiba at hearing that soft, sweet voice. He looked around, and at first had trouble spotting her amidst the huge crowd of people. When he finally saw her, she was waving excitedly at him from where she was sitting on her knees with Shizune and the Hokage around someone lying on their back. She had a grin on her face that – in Kiba's opinion – she didn't wear enough. When Hinata smiled – really smiled – she could light up a room.

"Hinata!" he called to her in greeting. Shino had obviously heard the exchange and had joined him as they made their way over to their teammate.

"Kiba-kun! Shino-kun! What are you doing here?" she asked eagerly when they reached her. She stood up and hugged him tightly. He knew he always got the brunt of her affection because Shino wasn't really a hugging type of person, and it was perfectly all right with him.

"We came looking for you," he explained as he hugged her back as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He didn't want to let go. "What did you think we came for?"

"We were concerned for your well-being," Shino said stoically. The girl really did have a gift to get that guy to care about anything so much. She released him from her hug, and he buried his disappointment like always.

"You really were?" she asked, sounding like she was shocked that they may have been worried about her. "Thank you both so much!" It was a mark of how close she felt to the two of them that she didn't bow when she said that.

"So are you two all that's here or what?" the Hokage suddenly broke in. He'd forgotten she was even there.

"We left early," Shino said simply. The Hokage did not look amused.

"Early, you say," she said dryly. "And was this the decision of the council, or did you decide on your own?"

"We left upon encountering Nara Shikamaru's team outside the village and learning what had happened here," Shino said. "We do not know what the current situation is yet in the village, or when the reinforcements they will inevitably send along will arrive, but our primary priority is to extract you all from here as quickly as possible. From the little we observed outside before coming in, the enemy is preparing for another strike any day now. And both the Leaf and the Sand are currently leaderless."

"We can't leave yet," the Hokage's assistant, Shizune, said. "This boy hasn't stabilized." For the first time since he arrived, Kiba looked down at the patient the three of them had been treating and gasped in shock. The kid on the floor couldn't be more than ten or eleven years old – an academy student, most likely. His shirt was gone and he was ghostly pale, and raw scars were visible on both sides of his body at the base of his arms.

"What happened to him?" Kiba asked. Had the attack been so fast that even the children of the village had been affected?

"He was helping Shikamaru's team to escape and they were ambushed," the Hokage explained. "He lost his arms making sure they knew the way out. Sakura was able to save him from bleeding to death on the spot, but she's not yet skilled enough to have been able to do anything else. The three of us have been working on him ever since."

"We're hoping he'll wake up in the next couple of days," Hinata said. "I've learned so much from helping him; I hope it all works out."

"He'll be all right, Hinata," the Hokage said, smiling at her. "As long as one of us is around to monitor his condition until he wakes up and we can make sure his arms work." That didn't sound quite as promising as the Hokage's expression made it out to be, but it seemed to put Hinata at ease.

"Perhaps we should begin with extracting the Suna nin first then, Hokage-sama?" Shino asked. She looked at him funny for a moment, and then nodded. "I'll send for the Kazekage and we'll discuss it. You have a way to get them out?" She jerked her head slightly at Shizune, who then left, presumably in search of the Kazekage.

"Well, we hadn't really planned that far ahead…" Kiba said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. He heard Hinata giggle, but his attention was focused on the vein that was now throbbing on the Hokage's forehead.

"You're kidding, right?" she said coldly. "This is some rescue. You came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?"

"Like I said, we were really just worried about making sure everyone was okay…"

"Our entry point should be sufficient," Shino broke in. "We managed to circumvent any entrances outside that the enemy is aware of, so leaving the same way should be possible. Although we would have to do it one person at a time."

"I see," the Hokage replied. "Then that is what we will do. How long do you estimate it will take to evacuate all eight of us using this method?"

"We should be able to bring out two people per day," Shino answered.

"We could probably push it to three if we don't have any trouble avoiding the enemy," Kiba added, wanting to be involved in the process. It was then that Shizune returned, bringing with her the last people Kiba would have expected.

"You guys!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger at them. "You're here, too?"

"We came with my brother," the girl, Temari, said.

"Well I meant him, too," Kiba said, not sure which brother she was talking about, though it was probably Gaara. The other two always seemed to be a partnership of their own with him on the side.

"He's the Kazekage, idiot," Kankurou said derisively. Kiba would forever owe the guy for saving his life, but he sure did have an annoying way of talking.

"The Kazekage?" he exclaimed. "You're kidding. Well, I guess it makes sense. He's insanely strong, after all." Kiba just shrugged, sitting down after too many shocks to his system in one day.

"These two here claim to be able to smuggle us out of the village," the Hokage said to the Sand nin. "Though we'd have to go one at a time."

"Really?" Temari asked, shocked. Why should she be shocked? Did she think they couldn't do it? He was about to say as much, and Hinata must have sensed it because she put a hand on his arm to calm him down. She knew he didn't like it when people undercut his abilities. It turned out that wasn't what the Sand kunoichi had meant at all. She was just excited at the possibility of escape.

"Thank you," she said to him and Shino. "We'd just about run out of optimism in here." Kiba just grinned.

"One at a time, though?" Kankurou said, not sounding like he liked that part of the plan at all.

"It's how it must be," said the fourth Sand ninja, whom Kiba recognized as the siblings' old jounin sensei. "If too many people go at once, the risk of being spotted by the enemy is too great. This way is best. One escapee and one guide."

"I will go first," Gaara spoke up, causing both his siblings to jerk their heads in his direction.

"Gaara, what if the enemy finds the exit point?" Temari asked almost frantically. "You'd be by yourself out there for almost half a day until anyone else arrived."

"Let one of us go to make sure it's safe," Kankurou added.

"No," Gaara said simply. "I will not risk your lives to protect my own. As Kazekage, it is my duty to protect all the shinobi of the Sand. How then can I maintain that title if I cannot protect the two of you? Besides, I among us stand the best chance of survival if I am discovered alone by the enemy. So I will be the first to leave."

His siblings stammered a few more protests, but they were token only. It had already been decided that Gaara would go first, and they knew it.

"We can leave as soon as you are ready," Shino said. Kiba would have demanded to know why Shino was taking control and going first, but he wanted to stay behind and talk to Hinata before he started taking people out anyway.

"We should go now, then," Gaara said, already turning to leave. Shino followed him without a word.

"I hope they'll be all right," Temari said, looking after them worriedly.

"They'll be fine," the Hokage said smoothly. "I, however, need to inform the Koorikage of what's going on. He'll want to know." She stood up, and Kiba blinked, not sure if he'd heard correctly. _Koorikage_? "Shizune, stay here and watch over the boy. You two should come with me," she said, gesturing to the two remaining Sand siblings. Then she was off, without even waiting for them to acknowledge her direction. They followed after her, though.

Kiba heard a delighted giggle to his right, and when he turned to see what it was, a smile grew wide on his face. Hinata was back on her knees, but Akamaru had come over to her and was licking her face, while she pet him and scratched behind his ears.

"Akamaru was worried about you too," Kiba said, grinning down at her. His partner cared for Hinata almost as much as he himself did.

"You made sure they were safe coming in, didn't you, Akamaru?" she asked the dog cheerfully. He barked happily in reply. She hugged him around his neck and he barked again.

"You've been growing your hair out," Kiba said, sitting down next to her and reaching out with his right hand to pick up some of the hair he was talking about. It now reached all the way to her shoulders.

"Aa," she said, blushing a tiny bit. "I've been working in the hospital with Shizune-san so much that I never thought to cut it, and by the time I noticed how long it was, I'd started to like it."

"Don't get me wrong, I think it looks good," he told her, letting the hair he'd grasped fall back down.

"A-arigatou, Kiba-kun," she stammered and smiled at him in that nervous way she did whenever anybody paid her a compliment. It was almost too cute. Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted somewhat abruptly at that point.

"Who are you?" Sneered a young voice from above him. Kiba looked up to see a young Snow ninja with a blue cloth mask across his lower face leering down at him. He was soon joined by a pretty girl with a cheerful grin and a boy dressed in the same clothes as the girl with a completely unreadable face. He was torn between demanding to know who this kid was in return or just punching him in the jaw.

"Don't be rude, Shiro," the girl said. "He's a Leaf ninja obviously, and he clearly knows Hinata-san."

"Oh!" Hinata suddenly said. "Kiba-kun, these are some of the Snow ninja we've met here. This is Sabu Yukiko-san," she said, indicating the girl, "and her brother Saburo-san. And this is their younger brother Shiro-san." The last one was the little brat who'd sneered at him. "Their younger brother is the boy we've been taking care of here."

"Kiba-kun?" the girl named Yukiko inquired. "Your teammate?" Hinata smiled and nodded.

"Wait a minute…" Kiba said, remembering something. "Your surname is Sabu? So you must be related to the three guards we met on our way in."

Yukiko nodded. "Our older siblings are guarding the entrance to the Hole, yes," she said. "You've met them?"

"Well, how do you think we got in?" Kiba asked. "They dropped down on us almost as soon as we entered the building and we had to convince them of who we were before they'd even let us move."

"Well, I suppose that makes sense," she said. "It must not have been long ago then, if we haven't heard about it yet."

"You said 'we'," said the one named Saburo. "Who else came here with you?"

"My other teammate," Kiba said. "But he's not here right now."

"Where is he?" asked Shiro, who sounded like he didn't trust a word he was hearing. Kiba had a strong feeling he wasn't going to like this kid.

"I can't tell you that," Kiba said. "Your leader is being told about it right now, and then if it's decided you should know, you'll know." That reminded Kiba of another question he wanted to ask. "By the way, the Hokage called your leader 'Koorikage'. What did she mean by that?" The three siblings looked at each other, sharing what was probably a knowing look.

"That's what our leader is called now," Yukiko said proudly. "It's the reason all the other kage were asked to come here in the first place. Yukigakure is now recognized as a kage-level power." That was definitely something Kiba had not been expecting, but he figured it could only be a good thing so long as the Snow was their ally.

"Yeah, yeah," Shiro griped. "I didn't come here to talk to this guy. I want to know how Goro's doing."

"He's doing very well, Shiro-san," Hinata said pleasantly. "He should wake up in a couple of days and he can begin rehabilitating his arms."

"Well that's good," Shiro said, still sounding angry about something.

"Thank you again for looking after him, Hinata-san," Saburo said, bowing. "Shizune-san." He bowed to her too even though she hadn't been a part of the conversation. The woman looked up from the kid on the ground to smile at him briefly, then just as quickly went back to what she'd been doing.

"We'll come talk to you later, Hinata-san," Yukiko said brightly. "We'll give you some time alone with your teammate for now." She flashed her widest grin yet and then began ushering her two siblings away. Kiba couldn't see the back of Shiro fast enough and was glad they were gone. He wanted to spend _some_ time with Hinata before risking his life again.

-

"We should be there in another day," Shikamaru announced to the ninja around him. The message began filtering back through the ranks – about forty chuunin and jounin had been sent along on this mission, and while his official role was merely to serve in an advisory capacity, he was more or less leading them all. To his left was Asuma, who was technically the commander of the operation, and to his right…to his right was Ino. After three and a half days Shikamaru still wasn't sure how he felt about her coming along.

She'd come to him the day before the mission was scheduled to leave, demanding to know why he'd accepted such a ridiculous assignment and that he should've refused, and basically yelled at him for a solid ten minutes about things he had no control over. Once she'd used up all her steam and he could get a word in, he spent the next five minutes explaining to her that while it wasn't something he'd ask for, this was a mission that had to be undertaken and if they thought it was him who should do it then…well, he'd do it. He didn't like it any more than she did, he said, but a shinobi has a duty, and he wasn't about to shirk his at a crucial point like this. Besides, by all rights he should still be trapped in Yukigakure with the others; it wouldn't be right if he escaped and then just abandoned them to their own devices.

By the time he reached that point, she'd been silent for a long time, and when he finished, she threw her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as he could ever remember her doing. Then she ran off without a word. The next morning, when they were set to leave, she was there, and Asuma explained she'd come to him the previous evening and insisted on coming along. Shikamaru was glad to have her there, in a way. He always worked best with her and Chouji and Asuma, and she was a comforting, familiar presence besides. And at the same time he was incredibly concerned for her safety. She'd never been on a mission this dangerous before – the highest she'd ever had were B rank, and only a handful of those – and the only reason this mission was A rank instead of S was because so many ninja were involved.

When he'd voiced his concerns to her the first night – in a roundabout way so she wouldn't suspect how worried he really was – she'd laughed and said it served him right; that it was his turn to worry for a change. Then she smiled and kissed him on the cheek, and went off to talk to Asuma about something. He'd never understand women.

So now, a day out from the besieged Snow village, he was working hard to keep his concern in check. Watching out for her too much would be a disservice to her as well as every other ninja in the group…and to himself. He told himself that he had to trust her ability – as he had before, many times – and worry about his own job. He told himself that, but it didn't seem to sink in.

"What are you frowning about, Shikamaru?" she asked from his right. "You're not rethinking your entry strategy, are you? I thought you and Asuma-sensei decided that would be the best way. Naruto and Lee and Tenten all agreed with you too."

"It's not that," Shikamaru answered. "I can't help but think we might be too late." It wasn't totally a lie; the thought had crossed his mind. "We left there a week and a half ago. The whole village could be destroyed by now."

"Not if what I know about the Snow ninja and what you told me about them is accurate," she said. "And besides, Hokage-sama is there, and the Kazekage. They can hold out." She smiled at him in a way that always seemed to boost his confidence, even on occasions when he wasn't aware he was lacking it. Someday he'd have to figure out how she did that.

"Everyone stop," Asuma ordered suddenly. They'd come upon the end of the forest, as Shikamaru knew they would. From this spot was almost exactly a day's journey to the Snow. "How long until we're back in wooded lands again?" his former sensei asked.

"A couple of hours, at our current pace," he answered. Asuma looked at the sky; the sun had gone down below their view over the trees some time ago, and now they were bathed only in twilight.

"And you say it's about a day to Yukigakure from here?" he asked. Shikamaru nodded. "Then we'll break across these plains and stop for the night once we hit the trees again," Asuma said. "That way, we can be assured of arriving by sunset tomorrow even if there are delays." He gave the signal to move out, and soon all forty-something shinobi were dashing across the rolling plains of the Hill Country in the swiftly waning light. It always put Shikamaru at a sense of unease to move across such open land in anything but complete darkness, and he imagined many other shinobi felt the same way. But there was no other way to reach their destination without taking a detour that would send them days out of their way.

"So this Koorikage, what's he like?" Ino asked, making conversation as they ran. He'd told her a little of what had gone on in the Snow village, but hadn't really gone over any details except what their enemies had fought like.

"He's pretty on top of things," Shikamaru answered after a moment of thinking about it. "He doesn't really have to exert any effort to get people to do what he says."

"A natural leader," Asuma said approvingly from his other side. Even though he was within hearing distance so it wasn't really eavesdropping, Shikamaru didn't like people just barging in on conversations. But he didn't say anything.

"Godaime-sama says he lives up to his new title, too. He was out there fighting the enemy kage on even ground with her and Gaara."

"Gaara?" Ino asked, confused. "Why was he there?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Shikamaru asked. "Gaara's the new Kazekage for the Sand. It was him who first recognized the legitimacy of the Shodai Koorikage."

"So…if he's there," Ino started, "then that means his siblings are there too, right?"

"Um, yeah. Why?"

"No reason," she said, though her suddenly hard expression didn't match her words at all. "I was just curious."

"If you say so," he said, not really understanding what she might be upset about and not really wanting to get into it with her. _Geez. Women are so troublesome._

-

Kiba was making sure to keep an extra careful watch as he and Hinata began sneaking their way out of the village. On the Hokage's orders, she was the last one being smuggled out, due to the high risk of her capture. Knowing she would be a priority target – especially for the Cloud – was making him almost insane with worry. He and Shino had both known it would be like this, but it was still difficult.

Between the two of them, they'd managed to smuggle everyone out through the side tunnel that he and Akamaru had dug in just over three days. That was something to be proud of, but the feeling of an impending attack had increased from "any day" to "any moment". The Snow were confident that they could repel the invaders for a short time, but unless the promised reinforcements from Konoha showed up soon, they'd be in a lot of trouble.

"Do you see anything?" he asked Hinata, who shook her head. Her Byakugan was activated and was probably doing a better job of scanning for threats than even his nose was. They were currently about halfway to the tunnel entrance by the ice rink – the one the enemy knew existed. They had to hide their side-tunnel every time they went through to make sure it wasn't discovered, but the highest risk was always getting to the tunnel to begin with, since the enemy would be expecting them to go there. Twice already Shino had reported having to lure away and kill an enemy before proceeding with the escape, and on Kiba's last time out he and Shizune had had to wait for almost an hour for a group of three Rock ninja to move away a sufficient amount for them to make a break.

"Akamaru hasn't announced anything either, so we should be okay," he whispered. His canine partner was scouting the area ahead of them, and would have made some sort of sound if anything were out of the ordinary. It seemed like smooth sailing…which was exactly why Kiba was on edge. It was never that easy.

"Wait…something's happening," Hinata suddenly said. She paused for a moment to focus, and then her eyes shot open wide and her jaw dropped. "Kiba-kun, run!" she yelled, grabbing his hand and dashing toward the ice rink.

"What is it?" he yelled back, sprinting along with her. Though he thought he could guess, and the very idea made him sick.

"It's the invasion!" Hinata shouted. "They're all coming into the village at once!"

"Shit!" he cursed. A second later he heard Akamaru howl, and from the Doppler effect it sounded as if the ninja dog were running back toward the two of them. "We need to get out of here now!" he hollered at his teammate. "Forget the tunnel! Make for the wall! Find the place with the fewest number of enemies and we'll make a break for it!" They were too far out to be able to go back and join up with the Snow defenders in time, and with so many enemies swarming the village it would be almost impossible to hide. Their only hope was to make it out and join up with Shino and the others outside.

"This way, Kiba-kun!" Hinata said, pointing to the right and pulling him along in one motion. After she was sure he was following she let go of his hand to ensure they both had a full range of movement. And then they ran.

"What's over there?" he asked, just as Akamaru rejoined them.

"There are only four enemies in this direction," she answered, already gathering chakura to her hands to prepare for an immediate strike.

"We'll have to drive right through them," he said, forming the seals that would allow him to use the _shikyaku no jutsu_ as soon as was necessary. "With luck, they won't be expecting us this far from the center of the village, and we can use momentum and surprise to take them out. We'll have to be fast, though."

"Un," Hinata nodded. This was going to be close.

A mere three seconds before they would be clearly apparent to their enemies, they sprang into action. Hinata leapt to one side of the street and ran along the buildings in the shadows, while he leapt to the other side and made his way along the wall just underneath the overhangs as Akamaru dashed along under him on the street. They wouldn't even be able to take out all four enemies; one quick strike would be all they would have time for.

Running as fast as he could, Kiba leapt up onto the rooftops to come directly into the path of one of the enemies – a Cloud ninja. Appearing from below the roof mere feet from his opponent's face, he lashed out with his now-clawed hands and tore the young man's throat out. He heard Akamaru growl as he jumped on another down on the street and mauled his face in one swift move, continuing on without even finishing the Kumo nin off. Across the street he saw Hinata assail a man with three consecutive palm strikes while she ran past him, and the man doubled over in pain. The fourth member of the team, whom Kiba hadn't even been able to locate, would no doubt try and counterattack any moment, so he moved across the street with Akamaru as quickly as he could to join up with Hinata and they kept on running.

"He's getting back up," Hinata said, presumably of the man she'd hit. "He'll be in a lot of pain, but is still dangerous. The fourth team member is helping up the one that Akamaru attacked."

"That means that if we leave and rendezvous with the others, we'll lead the enemy straight to them," Kiba answered back. He cursed under his breath. That meant they'd have to escape on their own.

They were coming up to the village wall now, and one jump onto it and Kiba knew they were in trouble.

"It's too slick to climb with chakura alone," he said, coming to a stop at its base. It was the first time they'd stopped running since the attack began. "We don't have any climbing tools with us, either. I could probably climb it using my claws from the _shikyaku no jutsu_, but there's no way you or Akamaru could make it. And there aren't any buildings around here high enough to rebound off of, either." This was definitely a problem. He remembered Naruto saying something after his first mission here about the walls being hard to climb, but he'd implied that it was still possible. Now, though…

"Kiba-kun, they're coming," Hinata said, nearly panicking. There was only on option left.

"Stand back, Hinata," he said. He took several steps back himself, so as to allow a decent running start, and then, "_Tsuuga!"_ With the spinning taijutsu technique he'd learned from his mother while still in the academy, he bored a hole straight through the village wall. A quick look to make sure Hinata and Akamaru were following him through, and they were off again, in a direction entirely different from where Shino and the others were hiding.

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata shouted desperately. "In the trees! It's-"

Kiba didn't even have time to raise a defense when a half-dozen shinobi came pouring out of the forest and onto the fresh snow surrounding the village. Only…these shinobi he recognized.

"Kurenai-sensei?" he questioned disbelievingly. He even stopped running in amazement as his old jounin sensei came surging toward him with five other ninja in tow, including two ANBU.

"Hurry and join up with Hokage-sama and the others!" Kurenai shouted as she came within range. "You all need to get out of here, especially Hinata!" She and her team ran by them then, and he heard her yell over her shoulder, "We have more than enough to handle this. Go, now!"

He didn't need to be told twice. One look shared with Hinata said she felt the same, so off they went, this time in the direction of the rendezvous point.

"It looks like the reinforcements made it in time!" Kiba yelled as they ran. He felt like laughing. Talk about leaving it to the last second!

Just as they made it to the tree line, three Rock ninja popped out of the ground ahead of them. Evidently they'd somehow managed to hide themselves even from Hinata's Byakugan. Kiba heard Hinata shriek, and was about to leap into action when he heard a familiar voice bellowing a battle cry.

"HAAA!" Naruto came barreling out of the trees and collided with the nearest Rock nin. A moment later, two more of him converged on the same man and buried kunai in his back.

"Let's go, Geji Mayu!" one of the Narutos called. From inside the darkness of the trees another familiar voice rang out.

"_Konoha senpuu!_" Rock Lee came spinning into view, his foot connecting with another Rock nin's skull and shattering it.

"Naruto-kun, behind you!" Hinata yelled out, just as the sole remaining Rock ninja fired off some sort of _Doton_ projectile jutsu. It connected directly, but Naruto only grunted in pain before falling forward and vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Kiba took the opportunity to perform the hand seals for a jutsu he'd just recently mastered.

_Chihaba no jutsu!_ He made a slashing motion with his right hand – the hand that was still covered in the blood from the ninja whose throat he'd ripped out – and the blood went flying forward and sliced the Rock ninja to ribbons. The technique worked better if he used his own blood, but this was more than sufficient.

"Thanks for the help, Kiba," Naruto sad, dispersing his clones.

"We should be saying that to you," Kiba replied. "How many came?"

"About forty, I think," the blond said. "But we need to keep going. You guys should get out of here. The old hag wants to get moving."

"Right." Just as they were leaving, Kiba remembered something. "Naruto!" he called after them. "They did something to the walls! You can't climb them with chakura!" Naruto didn't answer, but waved to show he'd heard. Kiba then turned to Hinata. "Let's go," he said. She nodded. They leapt up into the trees and began moving, feeling slightly more at ease. This was a much more familiar method of traveling.

After a few minutes they met up with the Hokage's group. Everyone seemed relieved to see them.

"I am glad to see you both managed to escape safely," Shino said to them.

"Yes, well, now that we're here, we need to get going," the Hokage said.

"Don't you think we should stay and help?" Temari asked. "After all, they came here to rescue us, and we shouldn't abandon the Snow, either."

"If they came to rescue us, how exactly is going back into the thick of battle going to be repaying them?" the Hokage countered. "They are here both to provide us with a means to escape, and to repay the Snow for harboring us. Our villages have already been leaderless too long at a time like this; we can't afford to stay here anymore."

"She is correct, Temari," Gaara said. "As much as we may be able to help here, we do more good by taking the opportunity to flee. Do not forget, our own villages are in danger of being attacked as well."

That was apparently good enough reason for the kunoichi, for she put up no further protest. They began the long trip back south, leaving the sounds of battle fading behind them.

-

Temari followed her brothers away from the battle and out of the Ice Country as fast as her legs could carry her. Hesitant as she might have been at first, now she'd had some time to think on it she couldn't be away fast enough. Being confined to that cave for a week with limited rations and space to move around in had taken the edge off of her combat prowess a bit, and she wasn't sure she'd have fared as well in a fight as she normally would. Add to that the extreme weather conditions – this far north it was an average of thirty-five degrees colder than what she was used to – and she was completely out of her element.

The relief from the Leaf had come just barely in time, and she was only a tiny bit surprised by who was at their head. That boy would never cease to amaze her. If only he were a few years older…

She chuckled ruefully to herself at that. Even if she _was_ interested, for the short amount of time she'd spoken to him outside the snow village, she'd felt something just a hair short of killing intent directed at her from the blonde kunoichi she knew was the boy's teammate. She wasn't about to get into a dispute of that magnitude over something so trivial. Besides, she thought, looking behind her disdainfully at the Leaf ninja who were following, she didn't want to end up like _those _two.

The two in question were skilled enough, she supposed, and keeping up just fine, and were they civilians there wouldn't really seem to be anything unusual about their behavior, but for shinobi, they were practically acting like newlyweds out for a stroll. And this was supposed to be a flight for their lives. It was disgraceful.

Many hours later, they reached the break in the forest inside the Hill Country, and Gaara and the Hokage declared it was safe to rest for a short time. The two Leaf chuunin who'd come to get them out, Kiba and that bug guy, stood watch while everyone else was told to get some sleep. Wary of enemies or not, Temari was so exhausted she fell asleep as soon as she put her head down.

-

"It appears to be over, sir," said a chuunin Shikamaru didn't know who had come up to give Asuma a report on the battle. "The enemy have all been routed or killed, and their remaining forces are fleeing the area."

"What are our casualties?" Asuma asked.

"We count sixteen dead from our forces, and twelve wounded. Only two of the wounds are serious. Among the Snow, the casualties are still being tabulated."

Shikamaru winced at the man's words. It was far too much. Death was always a possibility for a shinobi, but he couldn't help but feel that the whole battle was senseless. Why had the other villages suddenly decided to attack them? Didn't they understand they'd lose a lot of ninja, too? Didn't they care? He turned his head, and thanked every kami and spirit he could think of that the kunoichi on his right was not counted among those casualties. The three-inch cut on her left upper arm hardly qualified as a "wound". At the moment, she was doing what he was pretending to be doing: surveying their surroundings in the aftermath of the largest battle either of them had seen in over nearly four years. Come to think of it, she'd been unconscious for the last one.

He couldn't help but be impressed with her. He knew her skills were best attuned to situations of surveillance and infiltration, but he'd been unaware of just how far her combat abilities had come. She must have trained very hard for a long time since the last time he'd seen her really fight. A pang of shame shot through him, and he chastised himself for not being around enough for her. She was his teammate and he didn't even know what she was capable of. And she was very capable. It wasn't right.

Either she sensed he was watching her, or she just happened to glance his way, but for whatever reason their eyes met. She lingered for only a second, and then determinedly looked away with a scowl. He could only imagine what that was about, though he knew when it began. When the large force of Konoha shinobi had arrived on the outskirts of the Hidden Snow Village with he and Asuma at the head, they had met up with the team of Leaf and Sand escapees. As predicted, Gaara and his siblings were there. While Asuma spoke with the Hokage and Naruto went to talk to Gaara, Temari had come over to speak to him. He had great respect for the Sand kunoichi, both for her intelligence and her abilities. Through their many encounters in the past, he knew the respect was mutual and always enjoyed her company. He'd wanted her opinion on conditions inside the village and his entry strategy just as she'd wanted his opinion on the situation as a whole and what could be done about it from here. But throughout the entire conversation, he could feel a suppressed rage radiating from Ino's direction, and more than once he saw her glaring at them out of the corner of his eye. He knew Temari sensed it too, which annoyed him. He wasn't stupid; he may understand little about women but he knew why Ino was upset, and he was irritated because there was no reason for it. If she'd stepped back and calmly assessed things she would have seen that.

Normally, Shikamaru would just let Ino have her moods and temper tantrums, but this one in particular really got under his skin. He was feeling very complimentary toward her after her performance in the battle, and he didn't like being annoyed with someone he was feeling complimentary toward. It didn't fit right. It annoyed him even more that he would now have to exert effort to fix this, which only served to make that feeling worse.

He decided to approach as if there were nothing wrong. Playing dumb always seemed to work for Naruto in situations like these.

"That cut on your arm isn't bad, but you should probably have it patched up soon," he said, walking over to her. Asuma was still talking with that chuunin and wasn't paying attention to either of them.

"I'm fine," she said curtly. "Anyway, what do you care?" That was too much, even for him. His eyebrows lowered as he replied, in a much harsher tone than he usually would use.

"What kind of idiotic question is that? Of course I care." The obvious anger in his response took her aback. She stammered for a moment before speaking again. When she did, it was in a much less aggressive fashion than her previous dialogue.

"You're right, I'm sorry," she said, though it was clear she was still unhappy with him. "I know you do, but sometimes…"

"Sometimes what, Ino?" So much for the subtle approach; might as well get this all out in the open at once.

"Sometimes I think you forget how much I care about you!" she nearly shouted. She panted a few breaths, and then took on a look that plainly said she wished she'd kept her mouth shut. It wasn't what he'd expected her to say, but it wasn't a total shock, either. He would have to proceed very delicately.

"That's not something I could ever forget about," he said, much softer now.

"I came here for you, you know," she said. She was fighting back a sob; that wasn't like Ino at all.

"I know."

"To make sure you didn't get hurt."

"I know."

"Then why?"

"Why what?" He was starting to lose track of where this conversation was going.

"If you knew that, why did you let me come?" Boy, was that a loaded question.

"Ino, you know as well as I do that I would never have been able to talk you out of it, and it wasn't my call to make anyway. If you wanted to come and Asuma allowed it, there was nothing I could have done."

"But you wanted to, didn't you? You didn't want me to come. I'd just get in the way." Where did all these insecurities come from? How could someone as competent and intelligent as Ino feel this inadequate? On top of that, it didn't seem to fit her personality at all. For the first time in quite a while, Nara Shikamaru had absolutely no idea what was going on, and he didn't like it.

"How could you say that?" He very nearly railed at her. He was getting angry again and it was hard to hold it back. "How could you even _think_ that I would see you as just in the way? Haven't I always relied on you? Trusted you? Haven't I always worked best with you and Chouji alongside me?" He was vastly approaching a rant, and he couldn't seem to stop himself. Throughout all of his demands, Ino had only nodded, not making a sound.

"And on top of that, what's with this lack of confidence all of a sudden? That's not the Ino I know at all. The only two people I know with more self-esteem than you are Kiba and Naruto. Or is it just a bluff? Don't you know what a great ninja you are? Doesn't everybody say how skilled you are for your age?"

"You don't."

And just as he couldn't stop himself before, Shikamaru now could not make himself speak a word. That was it. Her feelings of inadequacy stemmed from one source: him. For whatever reason, his approval was the one validation she wanted, and she felt that she didn't have it. But why? It had never been a problem before. He'd never had to say anything because she always just understood what he was thinking, but not anymore. What had changed?

Then, like a strike to the face by the Hokage, it hit him. Temari. He knew Ino was jealous of her, but he'd assumed it was jealousy of a romantic nature. He couldn't help but laugh at himself for letting his ego get in the way of seeing the true problem. Ino wasn't romantically jealous of Temari at all. She wasn't stupid; she _could_ see that there wasn't any attraction between them. What she was jealous of was the obvious respect Shikamaru had for the older kunoichi. Respect she coveted and desired more than Shikamaru had ever imagined.

"Ino…" he began uncertainly. "I don't really know…"

"Don't." She bit out. "Just…forget I said anything." She turned on her heel to walk away, but Shikamaru was quicker and grabbed her uninjured arm to spin her back around to face him.

"I don't say it enough, but you're an amazing shinobi, Ino," he said. "Sometimes I forget just how talented you are, and it's not right. I shouldn't forget. You're the most important person in my life, and I shouldn't ever take you for granted. I'm sorry."

The fact that he didn't say she was "one of" the most important people in his life was not lost on Ino. Still, she had to make sure.

"What about Chouji?" she asked, not bothering to explain what she meant. She knew he'd understand.

His mouth cocked to one side in a smirk that used to be unbearably irritating, but somehow now seemed charming. "Don't get me wrong; Chouji's great. And Asuma, and my parents, and even Naruto. I have a lot of people who are important to me. But only one of them thinks I'm worth more what I already am, or remembers I don't like crabmeat, and that I can't stand any game that involves chance. Even Chouji complains when I want to talk about strategies from missions we've already finished. Asuma never wants to spend time doing anything except training or playing shogi or go, and my parents forgot my birthday twice. Naruto probably wishes I were more like him. And not one of them smiles at me like you do."

Ino gaped at him, utterly at a loss for how to respond to his revelation. Finally, in lieu of saying anything, she just leaned in and hugged him. She clung to him tighter than she'd hung on to her father as a little girl when something frightened her, and she didn't let go.

And as cathartic as the moment was, it was unfortunate that they forgot for just a moment that everyone they knew was a shinobi, for it only _looked_ like no one was paying any attention to them.

-

Tsunade was on alert. Well, she always was, but at the moment it was heightened considerably. After pushing harder than most of the group ever had before, they were now less than a day away from Konoha. That alone should have put her in a good mood, but there was something she couldn't quite place that was causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end. After so many years of experience as a shinobi, she knew by now not to ignore such instincts. She was just about to stop the party and confer with Gaara when he did it for her.

"There are enemies near," he said in his usual deep monotone. Tsunade was impressed in spite of herself. To have instincts like that at his age…this kid was definitely going to make a great Kazekage.

"How many, Gaara?" his older brother asked, already easing from their pouches on his back the scrolls which contained his combat puppets.

"It is impossible to say," Gaara answered. "But enemies this near to Konohagakure at a time such as this can only mean scouts, or a secondary invasion force."

"To invade two kage-level villages at once would tax their manpower too much," Aburame Shino observed. "Therefore, it is most likely forward scouts that you sense."

"A reasonable assumption," Tsunade said, breaking into the conversation. "However, no matter how educated a guess is, it's still a guess. We can't afford to make any mistakes now."

"Akamaru and I can scout ahead," Kiba volunteered, casting a pointed stare at Hinata, who nodded. She formed the brief seal that activated her family ability and took a moment to take in everything that she saw.

"I can't be sure exactly of the number," she whispered, "but there are at least two squads. The path least likely to give us trouble is there," she said, pointing to her right toward the west side of the village. "Though there are ways to conceal oneself from the Byakugan, it is unlikely any enemies are employing them at this time, unless they already know we are here."

"It is of course possible that they do," Shino said. He turned to Kiba. "I will follow after you at in ten minutes." Kiba didn't argue, which was his way of agreeing with the stoic Aburame.

-

"If you're discovered, don't come back here," Tsunade instructed. "Break for the village."

"Understood," Kiba answered, though he took a long look at the teammate he'd be leaving behind, first. He'd played it out in his head and reasoned he could protect her better this way, but he still didn't like leaving her behind, even if it was with two kage. He signaled Akamaru and took off into the night.

For a while everything seemed fine. He'd made it more than two-thirds of the way to the village and hadn't detected any signs of an ambush or anything. He figured he'd go for another minute or so and head back to give the all-clear. A small whine from Akamaru was the only warning he got.

He leapt backward into the air and flipped over to stick to the trunk of a tree. A shuriken the size of his torso went whizzing past where he'd just been. He didn't see Akamaru, but knew his partner had dived into the bushes to his right. Experienced enough to know he hadn't escaped anything yet, he leapt to another tree just as four kunai came flying at him from a different direction as the initial attack and embedded themselves in the tree trunk. He let fly with two of his own in the direction they'd come from, knowing it was merely a token gesture to keep the enemy from pressing their attack. At least for the next few seconds.

Quickly, he formed the hand seals for his _shikyaku no jutsu_, giving him heightened speed and reflexes. He was going to need them, especially if there were more than the two enemies he was already aware of.

He focused his chakura-enhanced senses, trying to locate his attackers. The one who'd thrown the kunai was on the move, probably repositioning for another attack. The one who'd thrown the shuriken, however…

"Tsuuga!" Kiba roared, whirling around and drilling into the enemy shinobi who'd just been coming out of the foliage behind him. The Mist ninja was caught off-guard and took the attack directly in the chest, breaking nearly all of his ribs. He would die if not treated very quickly. Kiba dropped to the ground to avoid more kunai, and only his powerful hearing alerted him to the displaced air from another attack, allowing him to duck just in time as a very large sword swung over his head and sunk into the tree. He rolled away immediately and sprung to his feet facing his new assailant.

The man he now faced was one who commanded attention immediately. He was a fairly tall man who wore an open kimono with sparse geometric patterns, joined only at his belt line. He wore blue-grey _hakama_ in lieu of pants, a necklace of all kinds of sharp animal teeth hung from his neck and draped across his bare chest. He had a wild appearance, with grayish-blond hair even more untamed than his own or even Naruto's, and his eyes were different colors. One was a vivid green and the other a deep purplish blue. A scar ran up the left side of his face alongside his oddly misshapen nose, and half of his right ear was gone. But it was his manic grin, along with the excited gleam in his mismatched eyes that sent the shiver up Kiba's spine. Had he been a jounin with access to the Bingo Book, he would have known this man was Akumazaki Noko, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and more commonly known as the Madman of the Hidden Mist. As it was, all Kiba knew was that this was not a man he wanted to fight under any circumstances.

Noko gave a hard tug, pulling his sword free of the tree and swinging it around to rest over his shoulder. Kiba analyzed the weapon. It was as long as its wielder was tall, a foot and a half of that taken up by the abnormally thick hilt. The blade itself was about two hands wide, and razor-sharp teeth, over two inches in length themselves, curved back toward the hilt for the entire length of the weapon on both sides. The tip of the sword had no point; the last two teeth were simply connected in one long arc. It was a frightening weapon, made to tear through the flesh of its victims rather than merely cutting or slicing them.

"Nice dodge, kid," Noko said. "You've got good reflexes."

Kiba was unsettled, to say the least. The manic quality of the Mist ninja's grin and the bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes were still present, but the way he spoke, it felt like a _senpai_ appraising the skills of his _kohai_ in a sparring match.

Noko was walking slowly toward him now, and Kiba was desperately trying to think of a way out of this situation. His greatest strength was in close-range _taijutsu_, but with that sword he'd never get in close enough. Even facing a lesser opponent he'd be wary of that. Akamaru was his one ace in the hole, provided the swordsman was not aware of him, which was too good to hope for anyway, but he faced the same problem of getting past the damn sword.

In an instant, he no longer had a choice, because his opponent tossed his sword into the air and charged. Kiba couldn't imagine why he would dispose of his weapon, but the purpose became clear a moment later when his attacker formed a few quick hand seals and attacked with the least likely of weapons.

"_Kiba Dangan no Jutsu!" _Noko called out, and all the animal fangs on his necklace shot forward with inconceivable speed. Kiba doubted if even Rock Lee could have dodged them, but he did his best. He managed to avoid a good number of them, but got grazed by several more and struck directly by three. One went through his right shoulder just under his collarbone, one pierced his lower left gut, and the third shot through his upper right thigh. All three of them passed right on through him and kept going, embedding in trees far behind him. Before he even had time to move again the sword was coming down on him, caught by Noko and using the momentum of its fall to add to the strike. Kiba winced and an image of a dark-haired girl passed through his head as his death descended.

CLANG.

Kiba opened his eyes and looked up. Standing over him, right arm outstretched and holding the oversized sword at bay with his metal wrist guard, was his insufferable teammate of whom he would never speak another disparaging word.

"You weren't supposed to engage the enemy," Shino said as coolly as ever. Okay, so maybe he could go back to being irritated with the guy when they got home.

"Has it been ten minutes already?" Kiba asked. "Time flies, huh?"

"Your other two squad mates are dead," Shino said, ignoring Kiba and addressing the Mist ninja, "and that one will be in minutes if you don't take him to a medic now." He inclined his head only slightly toward the enemy Kiba had dispatched early as a way of indicating who he meant.

"Heh," Noko replied, pulling his sword back and resting it on his shoulder again. "Awfully confident, aren't you? Well, I suppose I should go. I don't fancy the idea of having to fight two kage at once." So he did know the rest of them were here. That probably meant any other enemies in the area did, too. Kiba hissed an intake of breath as he shifted to grip his shoulder, which was bleeding profusely.

"Release Akamaru first," Shino said. Noko's grin widened.

"You are a sharp one, aren't you?" he said, but not in the same way he'd spoken to Kiba. This time it was the way one speaks to an enemy who might prove interesting, which only irritated Kiba further. All the same, they did hear a splash and moments later Akamaru came bounding out of the bushes where he'd apparently been held captive by some sort of water jutsu.

"Until next time, then," Noko said, then vanished. He reappeared an instant later on the tree limb where his wounded comrade still lay, picked him up, and then disappeared again. At that, Kiba finally collapsed to the ground.

"The others are on their way," Shino told him. "I sent an exploding wasp to signal them. Hinata and the Hokage should be able to heal your wounds quickly enough."

"Yeah, they will," Kiba agreed. "But we need to get inside the village first. There's still enemies out here and I'm not about to die or anything; my wounds can wait."

They waited for a few minutes, and Shino helped Kiba prop himself up against a tree and apply some rudimentary first aid to his injuries so he wouldn't bleed to death. When the rest of their group did arrive, Hinata was nearly in hysterics. Her Byakugan was activated; clearly she'd seen Kiba's injuries from far off and, being a medical ninja, was aware how serious they were.

"Kiba-kun!" she exclaimed as soon as they arrived, and rushed over to him. She began examining him immediately, and though he reveled in her touch, especially after thinking he was going to die, he knew they didn't have time for her to do this right away.

"I'm all right for now, Hinata," he said, taking her hands in his to stop her ministrations. "We need to get inside the village. I'll still be injured when we get there, and you can look at me then." It was a rather tactless way of saying it, but she nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"Can you walk?" the Hokage asked him.

"I'll carry him," Genma said before he even had a chance to answer. And so the next thing he knew, he was draped over Genma's shoulder like a rag doll headed toward the village, with Hinata practically stepping on the man's heels the whole way back to make sure his wounds didn't tear. When they arrived, the Hokage went to inform the council of their return as well as brief them on the overall situation and begin drawing up a plan of action. Genma took him straight to the hospital with Hinata and Shizune close behind. Shino came along as well, for whatever reasons he had, and he didn't get a chance to see where the Sand ninja went, though he didn't particularly care anyway. He took small comfort in knowing that the Hokage didn't feel his injuries were serious enough to require her personal attention.

-

It was another two weeks before the force that had been sent to Yukigakure returned, and even though Sakura had resumed her training with Tsunade and was consequentially kept busy, the waiting drove her mad. The entire village was in complete upheaval; with their initial strike halted, their enemies had evidently pulled back to re-strategize, so there was essentially a lull in hostilities. This meant that a lot of time was being spent in planning phases, working out what to do next. All sorts of affluent Konoha shinobi attended these meetings, from ANBU captains to jounin specialists like Kakashi to the heads of the various clans. Even as the Hokage's apprentice, she herself was only privy to one of these meetings, and so had plenty of spare time to train, and to brood over when the ninja sent to the Snow would return, and how many of them would return.

When they finally did arrive, Naruto sought her out immediately. She hadn't even known they were back when he showed up at the training ground she used behind the Hokage's tower, and she embarrassed herself completely by missing a step in the gauntlet Tsunade had set up to sharpen her dodging ability and getting steamrolled by a giant swinging log.

"Are you all right, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, helping her up and surreptitiously checking to see if she'd taken any serious damage.

"Ha-hai, I'm fine, Naruto," she said, brushing herself off. It was mostly a ruse so he wouldn't notice her blushing; how clumsy could she get? "I didn't know you were back."

"I figured that out already, Sakura-chan," he said with a teasing smirk.

"Did everyone make it back okay?" she asked, knowing it was impossible, but it was the implied question she was really curious about.

"Not everybody," he said sadly, "but everyone we know. Shikamaru and Ino…well, I'll tell you about that later," he said with a devilish grin. "I just came by to see you before I have to go see the old lady."

"Tsunade-shishou wants to talk to you?" Sakura asked, putting aside her curiosity about her best friend for a minute. "She didn't say anything to me about it. What for?"

"I don't know, but it sounded important. Shikamaru was really mad about it; she wants to see him, too."

"I don't believe this! You both just got back and she needs to see you already? You haven't even had a chance to go home!"

"That's what Ino said," Naruto replied cheerfully. "I think she was more upset about it than Shikamaru was."

Now Sakura _really_ wanted to know what was going on with those two, though she could hazard a guess, and that guess only made her want to know even more.

"Well, you'd better get going, I guess," she finally said. "I just hope she's not sending you both away again. You need some rest or you'll burn yourselves out."

"I don't know about Shikamaru, but I'll be fine," Naruto said. Sakura couldn't argue with that; he probably _would _be fine. The boy had stamina coming out the wazoo. "If we are going on another mission, I'll try and come see you before I go, though." She barely had time to say goodbye before he vanished in a puff of smoke.

She turned and looked back at the gauntlet, the obstacles in which were still in motion. "I need to keep training," she said quietly to herself. "Naruto, I can't keep letting you leave me behind."

-

"I'm glad you four made it on time," the Hokage said, looking in particular at Naruto and Shikamaru. "The mission I have for you now is of the utmost importance, and cannot be delayed any longer than necessary." Neji wondered why, if it was so important, had they waited for the mission from the Snow to return? Surely they could have found two other shinobi to come along. But he said nothing.

"What is the mission?" Aburame Shino asked. Neji silently sized up the fourth member of their squad. He'd never really worked with the Aburame before, though what he'd seen over the years always impressed him. Shino was one of the few shinobi in Konoha of his age group that made Hyuuga Neji uneasy. In a mission like this, he would surely be a strong asset.

"The open hostilities may have stopped for the time being, but our village is still being watched," the Hokage said. "Only the most elite are chosen for this task, as the need to not be captured is so great and the risk of capture is so high. We are most likely under surveillance from some of the highest ranked jounin from the Rock, the Cloud, the Mist and the Sound. ANBU squads are on the lookout, but at present are over encumbered with other tasks and are not sufficiently effective. The mission being given to the four of you is this: capture at least one of these scouts and bring him or her back to the village unharmed for interrogation. You and the other two teams assigned to this mission will be reporting directly to Morino Ibiki. I will let him complete this briefing." The aforementioned heavily scarred man stepped forward from where he'd been waiting behind the Hokage's desk.

"While it is only necessary to capture a single enemy, any further captures you are able to make will of course be helpful," Ibiki said. "Since there are four distinct enemies, higher priority will be assigned to enemy villages not yet represented in our interrogation rooms. Since no enemies have yet been apprehended, all have equal priority at this time. The other two teams have already been briefed and are already in the field. Here is the information on each of them." The interrogator handed each of the chuunin two folders, each one containing the information on of one of the other two squads and their members. Nobody Neji knew was in either of them, though their files were impressive. He noticed something else about them too, which made him suspicious, but he didn't say anything. Likely the others had noticed it as well anyway…well, maybe not Naruto.

"When do we start?" said blond asked, looking up from the files he'd been given.

"Your mission starts the moment you leave this room," Ibiki said. "You are to ask any questions you have now, and then leave the files on the other teams here before exiting. You are not to speak to anyone regarding this mission who is not directly involved while the mission is in progress. That means yourselves, the Hokage, the two other squads, and myself. The mission is over when at least one enemy scout from each village has been brought in for questioning. Understood?"

There was a chorus of "Understood," and then Ibiki asked if they had questions. When they didn't, he bade them good hunting and sent them away.

"Which way should we go?" Naruto asked as they left the Hokage's office. Not until he asked this had Neji considered the fact that no one had been assigned the leader of their squad.

"Our enemies all come from the north or the east," Shikamaru said, "so the best place to look for them would be in the west and the south."

"How does that work?" Naruto asked, clearly confused.

"Because it is the least obvious place to look," Shino said.

"Huh?"

"Think about it, Naruto," Shikamaru said. "If you were spying on a village, and they knew you lived to the south, where would you go to spy on them?" The blond thought about it for a moment before a look of dawning comprehension came over his face.

"I'd circle around to the north, since they'd be expecting me to come from the other way!"

"Right," Shikamaru replied. "So we anticipate that move in our enemy, and catch them where they're trying to throw us off the track."

"Okay, I think I get it," Naruto said. But then his face scrunched up in thought again. "But if that's what I would do, why would they be doing it?"

"What?" Shikamaru asked. Neji was a bit perplexed himself.

"Well, think about it," Naruto said, confident in his reasoning now. "That's what I would do, because that's what we're taught to do, right? It's a basic maneuver. But the old hag said these guys are supposed to be the best there is at this kind of thing. So why would they do such a basic maneuver that we could so easily predict? Wouldn't they do the opposite, and just come straight at us?" Neji felt himself smiling despite himself. It made perfect sense.

"They would throw us off the trail by doing what we would never expect them to do," he said.

"Looks like we're headed northeast," Shikamaru said. He was smiling too. Shino said nothing, but followed along with them.

-

Shikamaru huddled in the leaves of his tree, watching the enemy scout they'd selected as their target. He found himself really wishing Ino were there; her skill in surveillance was far greater than his.

"If this guy really is a Rock ninja like his hitai-ate says, then he's the last one we need," came Naruto's whisper from the right. They'd caught a Sound ninja their first night out, and then when they captured a Cloud ninja two nights later they'd discovered one of the other teams had captured a Mist ninja as well. They'd spent the next two nights trying to locate an Iwa nin, and now as the sun prepared to rise on their sixth day out, they were finally in position to nab one.

"If the enemy scouts are in contact at all, which they almost certainly are, then this guy's going to be on his guard," Shikamaru whispered back. "In addition to that, he probably knows he's a high-priority target since we haven't caught anyone from his village yet."

"We'd better make this fast, then," Naruto said. "Do you think Neji and Shino are in position yet?"

"They said three minutes, and it's been four," Shikamaru said, looking at his watch. "We should be safe to start."

Despite the fact that no leader had been assigned in their squad, Shikamaru found that Neji and Naruto had begun looking to him for direction almost immediately. He supposed it was because they were used to being under his command and they trusted him, which was all right. But even Shino, whom he'd never really worked with before, had started following his lead. Things weren't looking good in the future as far as his responsibilities were concerned.

"Right," the blond nodded, and formed a familiar hand sign. _"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"_ Several clones appeared behind them and quickly dispersed. The assault was underway.

-

Togashi Gekitouji observed silently from his hiding place in the hollow of an ancient tree as the four Leaf ninja who'd been tracking him began to move in on his decoy. The _tsuchi bunshin_ he'd placed in his old hiding spot was leading them right into the trap he'd set when he'd first noticed them a few hours ago. They were good at tracking, he had to give them that. Even on guard as he was, knowing five others had been caught, they must've been tailing him for a while before he picked them up. Even after that, there were a couple of times where he'd been afraid he lost them, only to find them again a few minutes later. As fun as it was to finally outwit a group of clever opponents, he'd be glad when it was over. He was getting older and stuff like this wasn't good for his blood pressure.

His clone moved slightly, seemingly making a fatal mistake, and the four of them moved in. He quickly got up to spring his trap, but suddenly found that he couldn't move.

"What! How? There's no way!" He shouted, all the while struggling with the invisible bonds that held him. The four ninja whom he'd assumed were still fighting his clone suddenly dropped down in front of him.

"It's no use struggling," said the skinniest one, who had a short ponytail and an infuriatingly smug grin on his face. "Stronger ninja than you have been caught by my _kagemane no jutsu_."

"Man, that was too easy," said the blond one. "I barely even had to do anything."

"Do you have his clone?" Asked the one with flowing robes and really long hair.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," said the blond one. A moment later, his clone was dragged over, escorted by the same people who were standing in front of him. They held it up strait, and then the long-haired guy struck it in the chest with his palm, and dirt went flying everywhere as his clone was dispersed. Seconds later, the ones who'd been holding his clone disappeared with puffs of smoke.

"Shadow clones," Gekitouji growled. "So you knew where I was the whole time"

"Of course we did," the ponytail guy said. "Neji here found you last night and Shino put a tracker on you. Then we let you notice us so you'd think you had the drop on us. Once Naruto sprung your trap with a fake copy of our team, it was simple enough for me to trap you with my shadow the second you emerged from your hiding place."

"Heh. Are you so confident in your victory that you can share your strategy with me?" Gekitouji spat derisively.

"I think it's a courtesy to let someone know how they were defeated," Ponytail said. "I know it would drive me crazy wondering, anyway." Then he made a series of hand signs and Gekitouji felt, rather than saw, darkness enveloping him from the ground up, and then he knew nothing.

-

"Very well done, all of you," the Hokage said at the end of their debriefing. "You exceeded our expectations both in the results of this mission as well as in the time it took to complete."

"Between you and the other two squads, we now have three Sound ninja, two Mist ninja, and one each form the Rock and the Cloud. The information we get from these prisoners should prove invaluable in the coming conflict."

"I'm giving each of you two weeks off as a bonus for completing this mission so effectively. You've all certainly earned it in the turmoil of the recent events."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Neji said, bowing. The others muttered their thanks as well.

"You're all free to go now," she said. "And congratulations."

"Huh? 'Congratulations?'" Naruto asked. "For what?"

The Hokage allowed herself a wide grin before answering.

"You have all now passed the jounin exam."

- - - - - -

Good Lord, did that take a long time to complete. Funnily enough, I got about the first half done in the three days directly following the completion of _Koorikage_. Over the next several months, I kind of picked away at it here and there, and in the last couple of days, I really hit my stride and got all the way from Shikamaru and Ino's conversation to the end. That conversation wasn't originally in the outline, by the way. I got struck by inspiration and put it in at the last minute, utilizing plot elements I had originally planned to touch on later.

So now we're in for a long ride. I don't expect each chapter to be as long as this beast, though some inevitably will, but I expect the average length to be longer than that of KK. The number of chapters will also be much bigger. Fun times.

One last note here, I seem to have lost my prereader, so if anyone out there is interested, please let me know (in an email rather than a review, please). Among other things, you get to read each chapter before everyone else, and you get to point out all my mistakes. If this is something that interests you, please send me a sample of something you've done, so I know you have the credentials to be of assistance. No offense, but I don't want someone in eight grade with a sixth grader's grasp of the English language to be checking my work for grammar errors. I take pride in my linguistic competence, and would like someone at least on par with me if not better. Some ability with storytelling and characterization would be nice, too. If you only have one of these specialties but are still interested, go for it. I've nothing against having a few specialized prereaders. Again, please email me rather than offering to help in a review. My email is illjwamh at yahoo dot com.

That's enough yammering from me. Please review if you liked it (or if you didn't), and as always, translations are available below.

Temperatures mentioned are all Celsius.

Chihaba no jutsu – blood blades technique

Noko(giri) – saw

Senpai – senior, often translated as "upperclassman", but it can refer to a senior employee or an artist of

some kind with greater experience, etc..

Kohai – the counterpart relationship to senpai

Kiba Dangan no Jutsu – fang bullet technique


	2. Episode I: The Calm Before the Storm

Well, here we are, at the beginning. That's always the hardest part to write. You can have the entire story planned out in your head, but if you can't figure out how to start it, then you're boned. I promise you all that I will do my absolute best to make sure this is a good story, and that starts right here with chapter one. So if it seems like it's taking a while sometimes, please bear with me, and never forget that reviews are some of the greatest motivation an author can get. Oftentimes I find myself spurred to write whenever I receive a particularly well-written review (doesn't even have to be a positive one!)

That's enough of that, though. Time to get this show on the road.

SHINOBI WARS

Episode I – Calm Before the Storm

"I can't believe we're finally going to graduate!" Moegi said excitedly to her two friends as they entered the Konoha Ninja Academy for what would hopefully be the last time.

"It's about time," Konohamaru replied. "I mean, we should've graduated six months ago. We probably could've made it out even earlier if we'd had the chance."

"I know," Moegi said. "I wish we could've. I don't think I could stand waiting another day. This stupid war messes everything up. It's not our fault they had to close the academy down all those times. They should've let us keep up our training so we could finish on time."

"They just want to make sure no one is graduating who isn't really ready," Konohamaru explained sagely. "Naruto-niichan told me what Iruka-sensei said about the class below his, and how they were allowed to graduate even though the academy was shut down for so long after the Suna-Oto invasion. He said the only ones who actually were allowed to go on missions couldn't even handle the lame ones that genin always start out with, and they're still where they were when they started. Even though I want to be a real shinobi, I'd rather stay in school a little longer than end up like that."

"I guess you're right," Moegi conceded. She then turned to her other companion, who hadn't been participating in the conversation.

"What's the matter, Udon-kun?" she asked. "You don't look well." The bookish boy was looking even sicklier than usual, and his typical hunched posture was even more pronounced.

"I…don't think I'm going to graduate," he said glumly. Moegi was shocked; Konohamaru looked like he was, too.

"Why not?" she asked. "Your biggest weakness was always your endurance, right? But you've gotten a lot stronger lately, and they don't count that as much anyway if you can do the other stuff."

"I don't think I can, though," Udon replied in an utterly miserable tone.

"What can't you do?" Konohamaru asked fiercely. "We can work on it right now! There's still time to practice before the exams start!"

"Well, I can't do _kawarimi_, for starters," he said. "And my _henge _and _bunshin_ aren't very good, either."

"That's not true!" Moegi argued. "We've seen you do _henge_ lots of times! It may not be perfect, but only the ones at the top of the class really are."

"It's not as good as either of yours', though," the young boy said. "And of the three, that's probably my best one."

"How come you didn't talk about this before?" Konohamaru asked. "We could've helped you. And you know we would have. Naruto-niichan probably would have helped, too."

"Well, it's just…" he seemed to have trouble continuing. Moegi waited patiently, not wanting to press him, and she signaled Konohamaru to do the same. The grandson of the third looked like he was about to pounce on his friend for an explanation.

"You can tell us, Udon-kun," Moegi said gently. "We'll understand."

"It's just, I don't really think I want to be a ninja," Udon finally said. Whatever Moegi had been expecting, it wasn't that. Konohamaru looked about ready to shout something, and she had to somewhat violently signal him to keep his mouth shut.

"You don't?" she asked him. "But why?"

"Well, since my parents moved here from an outside town and neither of them are shinobi so they don't really care if I become one or not. They put me in the academy because they thought I'd fit in better with other kids if I went there. I wasn't really interested, but then I met you guys and after that I was really only becoming a ninja because you guys wanted to."

Moegi just nodded; she'd known the part about her friend's parents not being ninja. In a village where it seemed like just about everyone else _was_ a ninja, it would be difficult not to notice even if he hadn't been her friend. She hadn't known that Udon was only attending the academy because of herself and Konohamaru. From the look on the latter's face, he hadn't known either.

"So what do you want to do then, Udon?" Konohamaru asked.

"I don't know. I always liked doing math problems and solving puzzles more than I liked doing ninja stuff. Maybe I'll see if I can be a strategist for the village when I grow up."

"That sounds cool!" Konohamaru said, patting his friend on the back. "But you know," he continued (somewhat cautiously, Moegi noticed), "you still have to be a qualified ninja to do that."

"I know," Udon replied. "But I wouldn't have to become one for a while longer, and I wouldn't have to worry about getting promoted or anything either. I'd just hold you guys back if I became a shinobi with you now."

"No you wouldn't!" Moegi and Konohamaru shouted at the same time. But Udon just smiled at them.

"Yeah, I would. And besides, there's no guarantee that we'd all end up on the same team anyway, so if we weren't, my whole reason for being a ninja would be gone."

Moegi truly felt sorry for her friend, and a bit ashamed with herself for not realizing he'd felt this way before. She decided that no matter what, she'd need to be supportive, but just as she was opening her mouth to say something to that effect, Konohamaru beat her to it.

"Well if that's the way you feel, then that's what you should do!" the spiky-haired boy said, slapping Udon on the back once again. "You shouldn't worry about us. We're you're friends, and we'll stay that way no matter what you decide to do!" He flashed a big grin, and Moegi couldn't help but smile in admiration. Konohamaru sure was a great guy.

"Thanks guys," Udon said. "That means a lot."

"No problem!" Konohamaru answered, waving it off as if it were nothing. "Now come on, let's go talk to Iruka-sensei before the exams so you don't have to make a big deal out of it when everyone's in there." The two boys began walking in the direction of Umino Iruka's office, and she hurried to catch up with them even as stray thoughts of who would be on her team buzzed through her head Despite Udon's doubts, she had been quite sure the three of them were going to end up working together; the Hokage always tried to team up people who worked well together or already knew each other fairly well. Naruto-niisan's team was the only exception to that rule she'd ever heard of.

-

From what Hyuuga Hanabi had been told, the academy final exam was much more difficult during wartime than during peacetime. From what she'd experienced so far throughout hers, she believed it.

Right from the start, she and her classmates had been put through the wringer. They were tested on basic skills such as weapon usage and accuracy, running and jumping, and hiding inconspicuously. Their _taijutsu_ was tested, and as if they weren't already exhausted by that point, the teachers then wanted them to perform each of the three basic _ninjutsu_ that were usually required for graduation.

Hanabi felt a stirring of pride as she sat in the classroom for the call to perform the last jutsu required of her, the _henge_. Nearly half of her classmates had already failed the exam and would have to remain in the academy for at least another six months if not another full year and a half. But the part that Hanabi was really proud of – and her father as well – was that she was a whole year younger than the normal graduate, and a full two years younger than most of this year's graduates. She'd worked very hard to perfect her skills, and was rewarded by being allowed to graduate earlier than usual. It was a practice that had been quite common in her parents' day, but had been slowly fading out over the last several years.

As it was, her father often told her that were it not for her cousin Neji, she would be the one who was touted as the genius of this generation of Hyuuga. This didn't bother her at all – in fact she welcomed it – since having status like that brought with it too many expectations and too much pressure to bear. She'd seen how the pressure of success had made life so difficult for her older sister, and was quite happy where she was.

"Hyuuga Hanabi!" came Iruka-sensei's call as he stuck his head into the room. Hanabi confidently got up and moved to the next room to stand before her instructors, waiting to hear who she was to transform into.

"Transform into the Hokage, Hanabi," Iruka-sensei said. Hanabi allowed herself a small smile; she'd gotten off easy.

Forming the seal, she quietly called out "_Henge!"_ and in a puff of smoke suddenly found herself twice as tall and fairly top-heavy.

"Well done, Hanabi," Iruka-sensei praised. "You've performed all three academy-level ninjutsu with excellent skill." He picked up a Konoha _hitai-ate_ from the desk in front of him and held it out to her with a smile. "Congratulations. You've graduated." She took the symbol of adulthood from him and tied it around her neck like her sister did. She could figure out how she wanted to wear it later.

"You're free to go home now," her teacher said. "Make sure to submit your ninja registration at the administration building sometime tomorrow. You'll be assigned into your squad the next day."

"Thank you, Sensei," Hanabi said, bowing and then leaving the room. Even though she had been confident, it was a relief to finally finish the exam. Her excitement only grew as she headed outside to meet her family. She couldn't wait to tell them she was a real shinobi now.

Stepping outside, she looked around, but at first didn't see anyone. She was about to activate her _Byakkugan_ when she heard a familiar voice call out her name.

"Hanabi-chan!" she looked to her left through the crowd and saw an older girl with shoulder-length dark blue hair waving at her.

"Onee-sama!" Hanabi yelled back cheerfully, trying to make her way through the throng to her older sister. She didn't usually use the 'sama' honorific for her sister when it was just the two of them, but she didn't know if anyone else from her family was around yet and didn't want to be scolded over such a minor thing when she was feeling so happy.

Hinata was walking toward her as well, so it wasn't long before they met up with each other.

"Where is father?" Hanabi asked.

"I'm so sorry, Hanabi-chan," Hinata said, "Father was needed at the war council. He wishes he could be here, and he told me to tell you how proud he is of you."

"It's all right, Onee-chan," Hanabi said, managing to sound a bit less disappointed than she was. "At least you came." She offered her sister a sincere smile of gratitude as the two started walking away from the throng of people surrounding the academy.

"Of course I came!" Hinata said, sounding affronted at the very idea that she might not have. "Even if Father and Mother had been able, I wouldn't have missed this for anything! I'm very proud of you too, Hanabi-chan. You're so much stronger than I ever was."

Hanabi blushed at the praise from her beloved older sister. Whether she would allow herself to see it or not, Hinata had grown tremendously over the past several years, both in skill and in confidence. Despite that, she had maintained her kind and caring demeanor, and Hanabi admired her a great deal. However, in the back of her mind, she also felt a small pang of shame; the two of them hadn't always been this close.

"That may be true, Onee-chan," Hanabi said, still blushing, "but you're so much stronger now; I don't think I'll ever catch up with you again." She'd taken her strength for granted when she was younger. Her father had always told her how she was a much better Hyuuga than her weakling older sister. _'How quickly things change,' _she thought wryly.

"You will," Hinata was saying, with a strong air of certainty. "Now that you are a true shinobi, you will find that gaining strength comes naturally once you find someone or something you wish to protect. And if you have someone to look up to, they can inspire you to work harder to accomplish your dreams."

"Like you looked up to Naruto-kun, Onee-chan?" Hanabi asked.

"Yes, exactly like that," Hinata answered, smiling and nodding as well. "Though I should say, I still look up to him. Naruto-kun has an indomitable will and a true sense of loyalty and friendship. To me, he possesses precisely the kind of strength a shinobi should have."

Hanabi thought about this for a minute, and then smiled as something occurred to her.

"I'll be just fine then, Onee-chan," she said. "Because I have someone like that to look up to as well."

"Oh?" Hinata asked, unable to hide her curiosity. "Who?"

Hanabi turned to her older sister and plastered a huge grin across her small face.

"You."

Hinata was blushing all the way home.

-

Ino couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so restless. For the two and a half weeks, the most exciting thing she'd had to do was guard duty – which, admittedly, was a little more exciting than usual during active wartime – and she was getting tired of it. Missions for outside clients had come to a virtual standstill due to the danger of Konoha ninja being attacked, so there wasn't much else for her to do even if she could take a solo mission.

Well, she supposed she could, but she'd never done one before and the rest of her team was always busy. Chouji had been working overtime due to the upcoming graduation which was supposed to have taken place this morning, and Asuma and Shikamaru were almost constantly occupied by war council meetings (even though Shikamaru was _supposed_ to have two weeks off – something he'd constantly been grumbling about). It sometimes felt like _every _jounin in the entire village had to go to those things.

Jounin. Shikamaru was a jounin now. When she'd found out – on his seventeenth birthday, no less (which also happened to be the day before _her_ seventeenth birthday) – she'd been so excited for him that she'd nearly burst. She'd thrown herself on him with reckless abandon and given him one of the biggest hugs she'd ever delivered in her life.

-

"_I can't believe it!" she shouted, hugging him tighter still. "You really got promoted? That's so great! Congratulations!"_

_He hugged her back in a token gesture, and she held on just a moment longer before letting go, knowing he'd get annoyed with much more. On the whole, she was a lot more excited about this than he was, which was pretty much par for the course, so she was used to it._

"_It's not that big of a deal," he said. "It's going to end up being a lot more trouble than it's worth in the long run."_

"_Oh, don't be ridiculous, Shikamaru!" she said, swatting him on the arm. "It's not going to be any harder on you than being a chuunin has been, and besides, now you have access to _all_ the scrolls in your family's library. Not to mention all the jounin-level scrolls in the village archives."_

"_I guess that is a bit of a bright side," Shikamaru conceded, a ghost of a grin appearing for an instant on his face._

"_Leave it to Shikamaru to make sitting around reading the best part of being promoted!" Chouji laughed._

"_We should go celebrate," Asuma piped in. "None of us has anything to do tonight; we should go out to dinner. My treat."_

"_All right!" Chouji cheered. "And we can celebrate your birthdays, too," he said, indicating both Ino and Shikamaru._

"_That sounds great!" Ino agreed at once. When they'd been kids, and she and Shikamaru had celebrated their birthdays together, she'd always insisted on holding the celebration on _her_ birthday, and since Shikamaru didn't seem to care anyway she felt justified. But now it felt special to get to celebrate her birthday as a part of this occasion._

_They went for yakiniku, as they usually did, since Shikamaru was comfortable there and didn't want a big fuss made over his promotion anyway. Besides, with the three of them, Asuma couldn't afford much more even if they'd wanted it._

_It was subconscious on her part; she didn't notice she was doing it, but Chouji did. Asuma noticed too…and so did the fourth member of their group. All throughout the evening, Ino was watching Shikamaru with stars in her eyes._

-

'_I've barely seen him since then,'_ Ino thought, staring up at the darkening sky from the park bench she was lying on. The vibrant colors of sunset were giving way to the deep velvet blue of dusk. _'He came by the next day to wish me a happy birthday, and after that I think I've seen him maybe four times.'_

She hadn't intended it, but this line of thought was beginning to make her a bit melancholy. It was the sort of thing she'd normally talk to Sakura about, but the pink-haired girl was just as hard to pin down as her teammates nowadays. When she wasn't studying under the Hokage – the _Hokage _– she was working at the hospital as an assistant medical ninja.

'_She was just as excited about Naruto's promotion as I was about Shikamaru's_,' Ino chuckled to herself. '_There's something going on there, I'm sure of it_.' Not pausing to consider what that would imply about her own relationships, she shifted position to get more comfortable and happened to see the very blond she'd just been contemplating. Unlike Shikamaru, Naruto had actually been allowed to enjoy his time off. Naruto's talents lay in combat and battlefield tactics; they had little use for him in meetings concerning strategy and political maneuverings. Still, his vacation should have ended a few days ago, so it struck her as odd that he'd be casually strolling through the park in the evening. Well, perhaps casually wasn't the best word for it; he did seem in deep thought about something, staring at the ground and kicking a rock as he walked along.

Still reeling from boredom, and desperate for somebody – _anybody_ – to talk to, Ino sat up on her bench and called out to him.

"Hey! Naruto!" she yelled. He jerked his head up to see who had called his name, looking around in confusion. "Over here!" she clarified, waving to him. Looking somewhat perplexed, he made his way over to her.

"Ino?" he asked, his confusion coming through in his voice. Then, perhaps trying to be polite, he added, "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," she answered. "I'm just bored out of my mind. I feel bad saying that with what's going on, but I can't help it."

Naruto took a moment to consider her statement before nodding.

"I guess I know what you mean," he said. "I hate sitting around doing nothing, too. If it wasn't for training with Ero-Sennin, that stupid vacation Baa-chan made me take would've driven me nuts." Inwardly laughing at Naruto's abject hatred of leisure time when so many others would welcome it, she managed to keep her face straight and continue a normal conversation.

"So what are you doing around here now?" she asked, motioning for him to sit down with her. He did. "I would've figured you would go out on some big mission the minute you went back on duty."

"I had a B-rank the other day," Naruto said, not sounding particularly happy about it. "It was lame; it didn't even have to do with the war. Why are we even bothering with stuff like that now?"

"Well, we need to make money somehow," Ino said, though she privately agreed with him. While income was important, she knew from Sakura that the village had enough surplus to last for a little while, and she didn't think they could afford to be wasting their resources at a time like this.

"Yeah, but that's what the genin teams are for," Naruto said. "A good genin team can handle most C-rank missions, and B-ranks would be good training for chuunin before they fight our enemies. I don't know why she's sending me on those dumb things."

Ino chuckled to herself, mildly impressed. "You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"

Naruto shrugged. "Not really. It just makes sense," he said. He didn't elaborate, so Ino assumed it was up to her to continue the conversation.

"So you say this was the other day," she said. "What are you doing today?" At this, Naruto actually grinned.

"Oh," he said. "Konohamaru graduated today. I had to go by and congratulate him."

"Konohamaru?" Ino asked. "Isn't that Sandaime-sama's grandson? And Asuma-sensei's nephew?"

"That's him, but don't ever call him that," Naruto answered cheekily. "He hates being known through somebody else's name."

"I'll remember that," Ino smiled. "So he's a friend of yours, then?"

"I guess you could say that," Naruto replied. "When I first became a genin, Konohamaru decided he was going to be my disciple, and we agreed to compete with each other for the title of Hokage." Ino laughed outright this time.

"You and that Hokage dream of yours," she said, shaking her head. "Though I suppose you could actually pull it off, now. I never would have guessed back in the academy."

Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed good-naturedly, and Ino suddenly realized she'd never really paid Naruto a compliment to his face before. Not that she talked to him much to begin with, but it bothered her a little bit. This guy was a long way from the annoying kid she and her friends used to scoff at as children, and he'd earned her respect a long time ago. She remembered telling Sakura how lucky she was to have such a great team back during their first chuunin exam, and wondered if the pink-haired girl had ever actually shared those sentiments with her teammates.

"I guess I was kind of a screw-up back then, wasn't I?" he said. "It wasn't that bad though, was it?"

"Are you kidding?" Ino said, laughing. "You were hopeless! I remember the time we were practicing shuriken and you got yourself in the foot. Iruka-sensei was so mad; he couldn't figure out how you even managed it."

"Okay, okay, you're right, it was that bad," Naruto said, putting up his hands in surrender. "I'm just lucky Shikamaru was there to take pity on me," he said. That was a shock significant enough to halt Ino's laughter.

"Eh? Shikamaru? What do you mean?"

"He thought it was pathetic that I couldn't do all the basic ninja stuff, and he didn't like that no one would really help me with it," Naruto said. "This was even before Iruka-sensei started to recognize me, see. So he tried to explain some of the lessons to me that I didn't understand, and showed me how to throw a shuriken. He even showed me how to do a _henge_ the right way, after that time I messed up trying to change into the old man."

Ino was nearly at a loss for words. "He never told me any of that," she said. "I didn't even know you guys talked much as kids."

"Well, we didn't, really," Naruto admitted. "He just said it bugged him that I couldn't do basic stuff I should be able to do, so he showed me how. I think he never talked about it because he never really thought it was a big deal."

A warm feeling of admiration for her teammate began to swell in Ino's chest, and she smiled wistfully.

"I'm going to have to send Shikamaru some flowers when I get home," she said. "He really is a great guy, no matter what he tries to make people think."

"Yeah, he is," Naruto grinned.

"I don't think he would, but if he mentions it to you, don't tell him what they're for, okay?"

"Um, okay," Naruto agreed, though it was clear to Ino he didn't understand why.

"Thanks."

"No problem," he said, giving one of those lame "nice guy" poses. "It's the least I can do, after all. I kind of owe you for cheering me up." It was then Ino remembered he'd seemed kind of down when she first spotted him.

"Cheered you up? From what?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," he said, waving her off. "Don't worry about it."

"If you say so," she said, not satisfied but deciding not to be obnoxious and press the issue. She looked at the sky and saw that the heavy indigo of twilight had evolved into the empty black of night, complete with its blanket of twinkling stars. She had guard duty in the morning. Again.

"It's getting late and I have to get up early," she said, standing up and trying to get some feeling into her legs. "Thanks for talking with me. You kind of cheered me up, too."

"I'm glad," he replied, standing up with her. "You're not like you were in school either, you know. Shikamaru and Sakura-chan both like you, and you're a lot nicer than I remember. We should be friends." He stuck his hand out. In spite of his tactless bluntness, she recognized the compliment for what it was. Besides, by her own admission, her younger self really _had_ been a piece of work.

"I'd like that," she said with a grin, extending her own hand and giving his a firm shake.

After that, they went their separate ways, and a few minutes later Ino found herself in her bedroom at her parents' house, setting up her equipment for the next day before going to bed. Giving it all a last once-over to make sure everything was in order, she stepped over to the calendar on her wall to cross off the tenth of October before finally sliding into bed.

-

Tsunade sighed as the latest new genin left her office after submitting his registration form. Mere hours ago, she would have welcomed the distraction from the near-constant war meetings, but she'd forgotten how truly tedious this process could be. And she felt bad leaving Sakura to train by herself for the day. After officially taking the girl as her apprentice, she'd intended to take the position of master quite seriously – and the girl really did show a lot of promise – and she had precious little time to spend on direct instruction these days as it was. Guilt had motivated her to ask Yuuhi Kurenai, who was on short-term leave after a particularly dangerous mission, to try and spend some time with Sakura working on genjutsu, which was a talent the two of them shared, and with which Tsunade herself possessed only mediocre talent. At least the girl would be learning something.

"Are you feeling all right, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked from her seat to the Hokage's right. "You look ill."

"I feel ill," the slug master answered. "I've been listening to these brats all day, and it's giving me a headache." She began massaging her temples to emphasize her point.

"Tsunade-sama, just this morning you were saying how nice it would be to spend the day on something other than war meetings," Shizune pointed out patiently.

Tsunade felt her eye twitch as a vein in her forehead throbbed She knew this – had just been thinking of it – but it was still irritating to have it highlighted in such a way.

"I know that," Tsunade snapped. "But something other than this would be nice, too." She sighed again, focusing on the real source of her unrest. "I guess I feel bad for blowing Sakura off today. That, and…it was that kid's birthday yesterday, and I didn't get a chance to send him anything."

Shizune's eyebrows went up. "It was Naruto-kun's birthday, wasn't it?" she said, sounding somewhat surprised. Then she smiled. "I wouldn't worry, though. I'm sure Sakura-chan spent some time with him; she wasn't here last night, after all."

Tsunade shook her head. "No, I don't even think Sakura knows when his birthday is. He never talks about it, so unless she ever directly asked him, she wouldn't know. Anyway, she was at home studying a new healing scroll I gave her last night. I know because she asked me questions about it this morning before she went off with Kurenai."

The more she talked, the more horrible she felt. She knew the kid didn't have many friends, and that the ones he did have wouldn't have a clue about his birthday, except maybe for Iruka. He probably did, come to think of it, and had most likely taken the boy for ramen or something, but it didn't change the fact that one of the few people who both knew and cared had forgotten.

"I see," said Shizune gravely. "Well, you can get him something today," she suggested, "and maybe even take him out to eat. I'm sure he'll forgive you."

"Of course he will," Tsunade smiled wryly. "That's what makes it so bad. That little brat would never hold a grudge over something like that, especially if I apologize and make up for it."

"Hokage-sama," came the voice of one of her aides who'd just entered the room. "Another group of genin is here, and we also have a preliminary report from Jiraiya-sama. His information gathering mission is complete and he apparently has some extremely important news. He should be back in the village by this evening."

Tsunade forced herself out of her guilt trip so she could do her job. "Send the genin in," she said. "I want to have the registrations completely finished by the time Jiraiya gets here."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." The aide excused himself and closed the door, and Tsunade couldn't help but wonder what Jiraiya had found out. He'd made a point of letter her know he was coming so she could hear his news right away, which was something he rarely did.

"Extremely important, huh?" she said to herself. "I have a bad feeling about this." She took advantage the brief opportunity to rub her temples one last time before the next group of genin arrived. While she never regretted taking the position of Hokage, there were times she wished it had never been offered to her in the first place.

-

Hanabi was sitting in her usual seat in her classroom at the academy, right in the middle. Some of the other students had teased her about being brainy when she'd sat up front, and while this didn't bother her per se, it made it difficult to concentrate on her the teachers and her work. She didn't want to sit in the back either, since most of the kids who goofed off sat there and they made it just as hard if not harder to focus.

The classroom seemed empty on this day, as about half of her usual class was not present due to having failed the final exam. This meant that anyone she was assigned to a team with would at least be able to carry their own weight, which was reassuring. She just wished she had some idea of whose team she was going to be on.

Unlike her sister, Hanabi didn't have any classmates whose abilities were already shown to work well with her own, and she didn't really have any friends her own age that she'd already learned to cooperate with either. She wasn't worried about it, though. The Hokage and her teachers were sure to put her with people she could work with. They wouldn't waste a Hyuuga by putting her on a team of screw-ups, after all.

Glancing around the room to take a quick head count, Hanabi realized that there would only be six new genin teams from this graduating class – not a high number by any means, and certainly not very high considering Konoha currently needed all of the shinobi it could get. Perhaps raising the standard for graduation hadn't been a good idea after all, but it wasn't her decision to make. One of the things she'd learned very early in life was that regardless of her own opinions, she would have to live with the decisions of her superiors. Fortunately, she'd never particularly suffered from this aspect of life, but it did get her wondering sometimes about why certain decisions were made the way they were.

While she was pondering this, Iruka-sensei had entered the room and was now addressing the class. She focused raptly on his words, in case he was sneaking any hidden meanings into them; he'd been known to do that before.

"I will now inform you of the makeup of your teams," he said. "As many of you know, you have been sorted into three-man cells. The grading on your final exam was curved such that the number of graduates would be divisible by three. This team is the one you will be working with throughout much of your careers as shinobi, and you'll find that even if you become a jounin you will still occasionally be assigned to missions with your original team.

"Once I call your team, please move to sit with your new teammates and wait for your new jounin captain, who will be arriving shortly. While you will be arranged as a military unit, your captain's main purpose through much of your early career will be to serve as an instructor, helping you to improve your abilities as a shinobi."

He paused, presumably to make sure everyone was still listening. Then, seeing that he still had their attention, he cleared his throat and began reading off of a clipboard. The first team was made up of three students Hanabi didn't know much about, as were teams two and three. Come to think of it, aside from their names and a little bit about their more basic abilities, Hanabi didn't really know much about any of her classmates. For the first time in her memory, Hanabi suddenly felt nervous, which simultaneously made her feel ashamed. She was a Hyuuga, and could certainly handle herself in any situation, so it didn't matter if she ended up with teammates who for whatever reason didn't like her.

But what if they didn't?

"Team Four: Sarutobi Konohamaru, Mitsuya Moegi, and Hyuuga Hanabi," rang Iruka-sensei's voice. Upon hearing her name, Hanabi swung her head to see the two people who were now her teammates for life, who were sitting near the back and congratulating each other on being in the same team. They barely even glanced at her.

Iruka-sensei's voice forgotten, as its information no longer concerned her, Hanabi tried to think of everything she knew about the two genin on her new team. She knew the boy was Sandaime-sama's grandson, but other than that she didn't know much about him. She figured he had to be somewhat skilled though, if his family was any indication.

The girl she knew even less about. She knew this girl was often if not always in the company of Konohamaru and another boy with glasses whose name she couldn't recall. She vaguely wondered where this boy was, and realized he must have failed the exam.

With all of her pondering, she barely noticed that the two of them were headed in her direction until they were almost on top of her.

"Hi, Hanabi-chan," Konohamaru greeted cheerfully. "Looks like we're teammates now, huh?"

Hanabi bristled slightly at being addressed with 'chan' by a person she barely knew – a boy, no less – but let it slide in the interest of team harmony. No need to start off on a bad foot, after all.

"Hello, Konohamaru-san, Moegi-san," she said to them both, very politely.

"Oh, you don't have to be so formal," Moegi said, waving her off. "We're going to be teammates after all; we should be able to talk like friends."

"Thank you, but my father taught me to always be courteous, and I prefer to," she replied.

"If you say so," Konohamaru shrugged. "It looks like we lucked out, in any case. Everyone on our team is pretty good."

Well, at least her teammates weren't obnoxious, at any rate. One less thing to worry about.

"I know!" Moegi added, rather excitedly. "I was upset when Udon-kun said he didn't want to take the test, but we sure got lucky to have someone from the Hyuuga family on our team!"

Something the girl had said caught Hanabi's attention.

"You mean that boy you two are friends with?" she asked. "He didn't want to take the exam? Why not?"

"He has his reasons," Konohamaru answered evasively, "and it works out better for everyone this way." Then he snickered. "Wait until I tell Naruto-niichan that I got put on a team with two girls!"

At this, Moegi proceeded to hit the young boy over the head. "Konohamaru-chan, you perv!" Alarmingly, this seemed like a normal interaction between the two of them, one that Hanabi found rather amusing in spite of herself. Though part of what Konohamaru said intrigued her.

"You are friends with Naruto-san?" she asked.

"Yep!" Konohamaru declared proudly. "He's our leader. But I guess he can't be anymore, now that we're getting our own jounin sensei." He seemed disappointed at this.

"He still can be, Konohamaru-chan!" Moegi said. "Sensei and Leader can be two different things!" This perked the boy back up.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. Then he turned back to Hanabi. "So, how do _you_ know Naruto-niichan?"

"Oh," Hanabi stammered, "Well, I don't, really. It's just…my older sister knows him, and always speaks very highly of him."

"Ha! I always knew the Leader was a real ladies' man!" Konohamaru announced confidently, placing his hands behind his head as though relaxing. Hanabi wasn't quite sure what to say to this, but was saved having to come up with something by the arrival of their new jounin sensei.

"Good morning," said a young-looking man with a neatly-trimmed triangular goatee who had just appeared on the desk in front of them, giving them all a start. He wore his hitae-ate on his forehead with a bandana covering the top of his head. Like most ninja of the previous generation, he wore the standard blue garb for Konoha shinobi complete with his chuunin vest. He had a kind look about him and was smiling despite having obviously taken them by surprise.

"My name is Tatami Iwashi and as of this moment I am the jounin captain in charge of Team Four. It's nice to meet you all." His voice was smooth, and her first impression was of someone much nicer and calmer than any of her previous instructors – her father included.

"Pleased to meet you, Iwashi-sensei," said Moegi politely, offering a small bow. Hanabi did the same, but said nothing. Courtesy was required of her in such situations, as was a certain degree of token respect for one's technical superior, but as a Hyuuga her _true_ respect had to be earned. She had no doubt that he _would_ earn it, of course; he was a jounin after all and less than twenty percent of all shinobi ever achieved that distinction.

"So you're our new sensei, huh?" Konohamaru asked bluntly. When Iwashi nodded, he blustered on. "Well I hope you're good, because I need to get strong enough to become Hokage someday, and I can't do it with a jounin sensei who doesn't know his stuff." Hanabi was taken aback by this apparent rudeness, but Iwashi didn't seem fazed by it at all.

"I assure you all you needn't worry about my qualifications," he said with a smile. "The only thing that should concern you is whether or not you will be able to keep up with the training I will be giving you. Let us leave here, and reconvene at a more appropriate setting – Training Area 3 should suit us well." And he vanished as abruptly as he had appeared, this time in a puff of smoke.

Hanabi wanted to scold her new teammate for speaking so disrespectfully to their new commander, but before she could even open her mouth said teammate was on his feet and preparing to leave.

"Training Area 3, huh?" he said. "That's just the old target practice place. I wonder why he wants to meet there?" He seemed to ponder this for a moment before clapping his hands and declaring loudly, "I'll race you guys there!" and vanishing in his own puff of smoke. Hanabi barely had time to sputter indignantly before Moegi followed suit and she was forced to chase after them or suffer the shame of losing to them both on their first day as a team.

-

Shikamaru groaned as he rubbed his temples. He'd woken up with a headache and hadn't been able to get rid of it no matter what he tried. No one had ever told him that being a jounin would be so much _work_. Of course, he'd expected some degree of increase in his responsibilities – that was only common sense – but he'd been entirely unprepared for the endless tasks thrust upon him. He hadn't even gone on any missions yet!

Admittedly, a lot of what he was being asked to do was because of the war. Everyone had to chip in more than usual, and he was sure that even if he hadn't been promoted, his duties would have increased. Especially since along with the increased threat level they were also working under the conditions of decreased manpower. It wasn't as drastic a drop as the Sand/Sound invasion of four years ago, but it was certainly causing problems.

In truth though, despite the added workload, what was really giving Shikamaru his headache was the information he had been given during the previous day's intelligence briefing.

"_So you're saying you think open hostilities will reopen again?" Shikamaru asked, though he didn't really need to. He was expecting it as well._

"_Yes, we do," said Morino Ibiki. "In fact, we're surprised they haven't already. The enemy has had more than enough time to regroup after the failure of their initial attack, and they can't be waiting for us to launch a counterattack. Their entire hope for victory hinges on their ability to press their advantage."_

"_But at the same time, we can't safely form a counteroffensive, since they'll have had plenty of time to re-strategize after the capture of their scouts two weeks ago," Genma added._

"_So it was a stall tactic, then?" asked Neji, who was the only other rookie jounin at the briefing._

"_For the most part, yes," Ibiki supplied. "But we did manage to obtain some useful information that the enemy will not be able to so easily compensate for."_

"_Such as?" Shikamaru probed._

"_Such as the approximate strength of their forces at present, and the knowledge that of the three allied villages on our side, Konoha is the primary target," piped in the Hokage. Well, that much wasn't really unexpected either, but knowing it for certain definitely didn't make him feel any better._

"_The time has come to begin probing some of the other shinobi villages," said Mitokado Homura, one of the elder council members who served as advisors to the Hokage. "Thus far they have preferred to remain out of the conflict as it brought them a great deal of business that would otherwise have been directed to the five…er, six great shinobi villages. However, they will be finding it increasingly difficult to remain neutral, and we must take steps to ensure that they either ally with us, or at the very least do not side with our enemies. Fighting four villages simultaneously is trouble enough; we need not add any more to our list of adversaries."_

"_Are we to be sending envoys to these villages, then?" Neji asked._

"_Plans have been set in motion since the beginning of the conflict to send emissaries to each of the villages either friendly towards us, or neutral and not friendly to our enemies," the Hokage explained. "The timing was the final consideration, and it has been decided that the time is now upon us. The teams of specially selected shinobi will be notified within the next few days of their assignments, and sent out immediately afterwards."_

"_How many villages are we contacting?" Shikamaru asked, despite knowing full well he would not get a straight answer._

"_That information is classified," replied the Hokage with a knowing smirk, "but suffice it to say we will be even more strained on manpower than we are now, so those sent on these diplomatic missions will need to act as quickly as possible in order to return home."_

_The glint in her eye as she told him this was unsettling; he just knew he would be one of the unlucky ones sent out on one of those missions. He'd proved his savvy in dealing with the Snow village after all, and that could have been disastrous._

Resigned as he was to his fate, Shikamaru had no choice now but to wait for the mission to be assigned. He'd passed his time so far catching up on some paperwork he'd been assigned regarding his opinion of the village's defenses in case of a surprise attack, and was only just now taking a break. He stretched out and rubbed the back of his neck in yet another futile attempt to banish his headache.

He was on his way outside to get some fresh air and maybe catch a glimpse at the clouds when he was accosted at his front door by an obnoxious blond shinobi wearing orange and black.  
"Hey, Shikamaru!" Naruto called out, clearly having just arrived.

Shikamaru mastered the urge to rub his temples again. "What is it, Naruto?" he asked in what he thought was a very calm voice.

"The old lady wants to see us," the blond replied. "Shizune-chan won't tell me why, though."

Shikamaru groaned, thinking he had a good idea what they were being summoned for, though he'd thought he had a few more days still. And he couldn't figure out why Naruto was being sent on such a mission, either.

"Hey, someone sent you flowers, Shikamaru!" Naruto observed jovially, looking in to see the elaborately designed bouquet sitting on the short desk by his door that had arrived just that morning.

"Pheh," he snorted. "Hell if I know what that's about. Whoever sent them didn't say who they were, or even why they sent them in the first place." It kind of looked like Ino's work, but sending anonymous flowers wasn't her style. Even if she ever _did_ send him flowers, she'd make a big deal out of it in order to make it clear that she did.

"It must just be because you're such a swell guy, Shikamaru," Naruto said, and he had the kind of knowing smirk on his face that made Shikamaru want to punch him, because the fool so obviously didn't know anything about it and was just trying to get a rise out of him.

"Never mind that," he said firmly, shutting his door. "If the Hokage wants to see us then we should go." Naruto seemed to find this reasonable, so they left without another word, though Shikamaru did manage to mutter under his breath, "How troublesome."

-

Konohamaru was grinning triumphantly. Their first real test as a team had been a piece of cake. Well, relatively speaking, anyway.

Naruto-niichan had warned him about the kinds of "tests" jounin sensei were apt to put their new teams through, and told him that while all of them apparently had their own styles, the secret to the tests was always the same: teamwork. No matter what your sensei told you, or what rules were given, or what the task itself was, the way to pass was simply to work as a team.

Of course, it had taken Konohamaru a little bit of time and no small amount of effort to convince Hanabi of this (Moegi, of course, had been willing to work with him from the start). Once they finally came together as a unit, however, it didn't take long for Iwashi-sensei to congratulate them and tell them they'd passed the test, even though they hadn't managed to retrieve one of the scrolls he'd been guarding (a feat he confessed he hadn't expected them to accomplish anyway).

So now they were all truly genin, and would be given missions and allowed to train in the more advanced shinobi techniques that only full-fledged ninja were allowed to practice. Exhausted though they were, they were all more than happy to sit out a little longer and hear Iwashi-sensei's instructions regarding their future assignments. Even Hanabi seemed to have lost all of her somewhat haughty attitude in lieu of their accomplishment.

"We'll gather at this same spot tomorrow, where you will all be assigned your first mission," Iwashi said. "As you are all raw rookies, it will of course be a D-rank mission. Normally new teams are assigned from six to eight of these at least before expanding to the odd C-rank mission here and there, but as we are at war, things are being done differently." Konohamaru's excitement mounted. It sounded as though they were going to be getting some more interesting missions sooner than he could have ever hoped.

'After you have completed four D-rank missions, I will assess your performance and if, at that time, I feel you are ready for greater responsibility, the Hokage will assign our team a C-rank mission. Since most of the village's chuunin and jounin are currently occupied fighting the war, it falls mainly to the genin teams to complete enough missions to keep the village financially afloat. So even though you may not be in direct combat with the enemy, never doubt that you will all be doing your part to help the village in this difficult time."

Konohamaru couldn't be happier. A C-rank after only four missions was better than he could have imagined, and he had no doubt that he and his teammates would perform well enough in them to be nominated for the next chuunin exam. If he passed that, then he really _would _be in direct combat with enemies, which was his ultimate goal. Well, aside from being Hokage, but Naruto-niichan was currently two steps up on him in that respect, so he was coming to think he may have to be willing to resign himself to being the Seventh Hokage. It would still fulfill his aspirations, after all, and it would be all the sweeter if Naruto himself were the one to name him the next Hokage.

Konohamaru didn't notice the odd looks his female teammates gave him at the oddly sinister chuckle that escaped his lips after Iwashi's lecture.

-

Naruto couldn't help but feel important as he looked around the room at the faces he'd grown up respecting and taking orders from, realizing he was no longer in their presence as a subordinate, but that he was among _equals_. This was only his second jounin meeting, and as it only had a sparse number of jounin present he felt all the more keyed up about being there.

"Each of you will be leading a team to one of the possibly amiable villages," the old lady was saying. "Your goals are simply this: to convince them to enter the conflict on our side, or to convince them to stay out of it altogether. We will be sending individual shinobi to the potentially hostile villages to ascertain whether or not they have allied with our enemies."

"It is imperative that you complete these missions as quickly and with as little incident as possible," Old Man Homura said, scowling at Naruto, who scowled right back. The old fart still didn't trust him, even after the mission to the Snow. "We cannot risk the loss of a possible ally at this crucial juncture, and we are currently in dire need of aid, though we dare not make that plain."

"Each of your missions is detailed in one of these folders, which are for your eyes only," Tsunade announced firmly, holding up a stack of a dozen or so folders. Naruto's eyebrows shot up. He'd never really thought about how many other ninja villages there were. Tsunade handed all but two of the stack to Shizune, who began handing them out amongst the other jounin present. The Hokage herself made her way over to where Naruto and Shikamaru were standing. Upon arriving, she took one of the folders and handed it to Shikamaru.

"Good luck, kid," she said bracingly. Naruto watched as the young Nara opened the folder, briefly glanced at its contents, then clinched his eyes shut as if fighting off a throbbing pain. Tsunade then turned to him.

"Happy birthday, brat," she said, though the insult had no bite to it. It wouldn't matter anyway, as her words alone shot a bolt of joy though his heart; she _had _remembered his birthday after all. She was one of the only people who knew when it was, and he typically had it bad enough on that day with everyone's Kyuubi-based prejudices amplified tenfold on the anniversary of its defeat without her forgetting about it.

He looked at her quizzically. Tsunade smiled brightly at him and held a folder out for him to take. He did, and when he opened it to look inside he could have hugged her right in the middle of the briefing. She'd given him the easiest assignment: Kigakure, the Tree village, which was all but allied to Konoha already anyway. Even better, he only had one teammate instead of two, and it was the best teammate he could have asked for: Sakura.

He knew he couldn't say anything to her right there or he'd call attention to the fact that she was showing favoritism, but he made sure she saw his smile of gratitude before she turned to go back to the front of the room and address all the assembled jounin one last time.

"The mission begins at dawn tomorrow," she said, all business once again. "Take the time between now and then to inform your team and make whatever preparations you deem necessary. Are there any questions?"

No one said anything, and even Naruto himself felt that these instructions were pretty straight-forward. But then, to his surprise, Shikamaru spoke up.

"This plan was mentioned yesterday," he said, "but at that time it sounded as though we wouldn't be acting on it for several days at least. What's changed since then?" The frown that appeared on the old lady's face at this question gave Naruto a deep sense or foreboding. Nothing good ever happened when people frowned like that.

"We received intelligence this afternoon that has forced us to accelerate our plans," she said. "It is at this time still classified, but I trust each of you implicitly," she nodded around at all the jounin in the room. "Jiraiya returned today and he's brought information that could be as dangerous as anything our enemies are planning."

"What's that?" asked one of the jounin Naruto knew by appearance but had never really met. Tsunade's reply was the last thing Naruto expected, and it shot his good mood to hell.

"Akatsuki's on the move again."

- - -

The part about Shikamaru helping Naruto with his studies (particularly _henge_) is a nod to Desaix's story _Training for the Job_, in which he does just that.

Some of you may be intrigued by my portrayal of Hanabi in this chapter. The approach of writing her as a snobbish, stuck-up bitch who holds her older sister in contempt for being weak has been done to death, so I'm skipping it. The change in Hiashi's character after Neji's fight with Naruto would no doubt have rubbed off on his younger daughter somewhat, and (in this fic at least – we have yet to see it in canon, though she is a chuunin) Hinata has improved to the degree that no one, least of all a fresh genin, would be justified in calling her weak. So basically I just started off partway through Hanabi's reclamation. She's still got a touch of that Hyuuga arrogance they're so famous for, but she's grown to the point that she's at least a somewhat likable character.

Also, I know that in the manga, the jounin sensei for Konohamaru's team is Ebisu, but also in the manga Udon is on the team and not Hanabi. I planned this part out before Konohamaru's team appeared in canon, and the manga version seems too contrived to me anyway, so I'm keeping my original plan.

And, last but not least, a great deal of thanks goes to my prereader HitokiriOTD, whose many suggestions and minor edits brought the quality of this chapter up at least two notches, and probably made it easier to understand too. Plus, I have been cleared to announce, no less than two typos were caught and destroyed. They will threaten our homes and children no longer.

Translation:

_Yakiniku – _Japanese barbecue. If you've seen Chouji eat anything in the series, you know what this is.


	3. Episode II: Kigakure

Episode II

Illjwamh's Notes: This chapter will – I hope – be fun. There's a character in this I've been waiting to introduce for a long time, and some stuff occurs here that will be really important later on. Enough ballyhoo, then. Onward!

SHINOBI WARS

Episode II: Kigakure

Naruto hurried through the streets of Konoha on his way to an old, familiar bridge he'd visited many times before. The old meeting place for Team 7 was where he'd arranged to meet Sakura to head off on their mission to the Hidden Tree Village. Well, he hadn't really specified the bridge, exactly. He had simply said "I'll meet you an hour after sunrise tomorrow morning," before they parted ways en route to their respective homes. He knew she'd understand exactly what he meant.

Sure enough, when he came in sight of the bridge, he could see a slender, pink-haired figure waiting patiently for him.

"Naruto…" she began, but he cut her off.

"I'm not late!" he insisted, coming to stand beside her. "Sunrise was fifty-eight minutes ago, so I'm actually early. Ha!"

Sakura gave him a stern look that lasted for about six seconds before breaking down in laughter.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," she said after catching her breath. "It just doesn't feel the same without yelling at someone for being late."

"Yeah, well, I'm going to tell you the wrong time next time so I'll be sure to show up first," he retorted, pretending to be upset.

"Oh, all right, all right, I won't pick on you anymore," she said. "But you know," she continued with a grin, "even if you were late I'd let it go if you told me something like you had to help a kitten out of a tree or something."

"Or maybe that I got lost on the road of life," he contributed, finding her humorous mood infectious. They spent the next several minutes laughing and playfully abusing their old sensei before they remembered that they were supposed to be heading out on a mission.

"I guess we should get going," Sakura said, effectively putting them back on task. They began walking toward the village gate. "I'm supposed to ask you for the details of where we're going and what our objectives are, Jounin Commander-san." The friendly teasing about his new rank had been a constant thing ever since his promotion and Naruto found he couldn't get enough of it. It made him feel wonderful in ways he couldn't even describe to know Sakura was so proud of him. He knew she was, because she'd outright told him as much, and the teasing was always accompanied by a very fond look that made him go slightly weak at the knees.

"We're being sent on a diplomatic mission to the Village Hidden in the Trees," he told her, making a show of being all business. "Our objective is to secure them as our ally, or at the very least convince them to remain neutral. We're to send word immediately when we learn of their decision."

"Yes sir," Sakura said, playing at seriousness as well before her control crumbled and she dissolved into a fit of giggles. "Naruto, don't ever talk like that around me again, I can't take it."

"Talk like what, Sakura-chan?" he asked innocently.

She shoved him gently, still laughing. "Like how you just were! You sounded like one of the village council members or something."

"Just trying to be a good Jounin Commander," he said with a smile. This time the shove wasn't quite as gentle.

"Baka. I don't know why I put up with you," she joked.

"That's easy, Sakura-chan," he said. "It's because I have such a naturally charming personality!"

"You wish," she shot back, sticking her tongue out at him in the process. "If you were any _less_ charming you'd belong in a zoo."

"Ah, come on, Sakura-chan!" Naruto wailed. "That was below the belt!"

She ran ahead of him a ways, and then spun to face him with her hands clasped behind her back. Bending at the waist to lean toward him, she taunted, "Sorry, Naruto. I have to keep your head from getting too big, after all." She spun around again and ran away from him, leaving him sputtering on the spot for a moment before he took off after her and chased her all the way out of the village.

-

Sakura was engaged in quiet reflection as she and her long-time friend and teammate walked along in companionable silence. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a mission she felt absolutely no anxiety about.

"_It's gonna be an easy one, Sakura-chan,"_ Naruto had told her after they'd left the village and slowed to a more dignified pace. She had already known that much, even without him telling her what the other jounin had said. The Tree village was practically their ally already, and it wasn't even very far away. The risk was minimal, the difficulty was low, and the estimated time of completion was less than a week. She was also looking forward to a chance to see the oak triplets again – well, maybe not Shaku – though she was keeping that to herself for the time being.

She stole a glance at Naruto out of the corner of her eye. He was strolling along perfectly at ease, but she knew without having to see them that his eyes were darting around every few seconds to take in everything about their surroundings. She was doing the same, of course, but so far nothing the least bit unusual had caught her attention.

"How's your training going, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked out of the blue, breaking the silence.

"What brought that up?" she asked, unable to restrain herself.

"Oh, nothing," he shrugged. "I was just curious. I haven't been able to talk to you much lately to find out how it's going, and the one time the old hag mentioned it she said you were doing really well. I guess I just want to know how you feel about it."

"She really said that?" Sakura asked, surprised but pleased. Naruto nodded. "Well, I suppose it's coming along all right. Medical ninjutsu is incredibly complicated and I can only do the simple things right now, like healing small cuts or bruises. Basically it's just using your chakra to accelerate your patient's own recuperative abilities."

"Well, I don't really understand how any of that works," Naruto admitted sheepishly, scratching his head. "But I'm glad you're doing well. With Baa-chan as your sensei, you'll be one of the best medical ninja in the world." He grinned widely at her – something she immediately discovered was infectious.

"Has she taught you anything else?" Naruto asked.

"A few things," Sakura replied. In truth, she'd been working on only one other thing with Tsunade since her training began: the strength enhancing jutsu Ino had been given before their mission to the daimyo's castle. As Sakura had quickly learned, there was a big difference between giving your power a quick boost like Ino could do and the feats of superhuman strength her master was capable of. Countless hours of physical conditioning along with precise chakra control were required to truly master the technique. Sakura had long since surpassed Ino's ability with the jutsu, but she had a long way to go before she reached her full potential.

"That's great!" Naruto said. "With her teaching you, and Ero-Sennin teaching me, you and I'll be the strongest ninja in Konoha!"

Sakura allowed herself a wistful smile at that thought, but then something else struck her.

"What _is_ Jiraiya-sama teaching you, anyway?" she asked. "I mean, I know he taught you the _Rasengan_, and how to summon toads, but a lot of the things you learned to fight…well, a lot of the other jutsu you learned are from Kakashi-sensei. Are you sure he isn't just teaching you how to be a pervert?"

She had almost said "the things you learned to fight Sasuke," but managed to stop herself just in time. She didn't need to bring him up and ruin both of their good moods.

Naruto laughed heartily at that, either not noticing her slip or choosing to ignore it. "He sure has tried! He's always trying to get me to peek at women's baths and stuff with him. I think he thinks that if he gets me doing it too, I won't shout at him so much when he does it."

"So you don't, then?" Sakura asked. She felt relieved and she wasn't entirely sure why.

"Of course not!" Naruto shouted indignantly. "You know me better than that, Sakura-chan."

"I suppose you're right," she admitted.

"Besides," he said with a devilish gleam in his eye, "Ero-Sennin is the perfect target for any new perverted ninjutsu I develop."

Sakura's step faltered for only a moment, and then she turned on her teammate and beat him soundly over the head.

"You idiot!" she screamed. "How can you go on and on about not being a pervert and then say something like that?" She grabbed a hold of his arm and was now hitting at him repeatedly.

"OW! Ow, Sakura-chan, stop! Stop!" He tried to wriggle out of her grip, but she held on tighter and reached back to really clock him.

"You're just a perverted jerk like that creepy master of yours after all!" she accused.

"No, no, I'm not! Let me explain!" he pleaded, holding up his hands in defence. Half thinking she should be fair and hear him out, half morbidly curious as to what possible explanation he could have that would satisfy her, she dropped her fist and let go of his sleeve.

"This had better be good," she said.

"It will be, I promise." Well, that was one good sign at least. Naruto never said the words 'I promise' unless he really meant it.

"Let's hear it, then."

"Sakura-chan, perverted ninjutsu isn't something you would use _because_ you're a pervert, it's something to use _against_ perverts."

"What?" she asked, not following his reasoning. Who else but a pervert would think up something like transforming into a naked girl in a sexy pose?

"Think about it. If I used something like _Oiroke no jutsu_ on a person who wasn't a pervert, what would happen?"

She thought about it for a second, and suddenly the answer was obvious.

"Nothing!" she said, the realization coming through in her voice. Naruto seemed to see that she was beginning to understand, because his eyes lit up slightly.

"Right! It wouldn't affect them at all. But if I used it on someone like Ero-Sennin, especially if they weren't expecting it, it would catch them completely off-guard. It's a way to distract them and maybe weaken them enough so you can get away or beat them or just play a trick on them. Does that make sense?"

Sakura thought about it, and she grudgingly had to admit that it did indeed make sense. "Fine," she said, crossing her arms in annoyance. "That works, I guess, and I'm sorry for hitting you. But it's still stupid and immature."

"But who ever said I was mature, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked playfully. His good cheer seemed to have returned upon the realization that she was not going to resume hitting him. Sakura tried to hold it in, but found that she could not stop herself from laughing.

"You are, without a doubt, the biggest idiot I have ever met," she teased.

He was about to shoot back a retort when she saw his eyes fix behind her and his jaw tighten ever-so-slightly, and without even thinking she leapt to her left off the road. An instant later Naruto had dashed forward into the trees where he'd been staring, and she heard a clanging of metal on metal.

Not one to lounge about while others did her fighting for her (not anymore anyway, she reminded herself fiercely), Sakura quickly scanned the area and discovered another assailant lurking in a tree across the road from her, focusing entirely on Naruto's fight and not paying her the slightest bit of attention. Drawing a kunai from her holster and some shuriken, Sakura made ready her attack.

Leaping from her perch into the air, she flew in a tall arcing motion across the road, and when she hit the zenith she let fly with the shuriken, keeping a tight grip on the kunai. The enemy seemed to simply vanish as the projectiles made contact, and they sank harmlessly into the tree limb. Sakura barely had time to be surprised before the ninja she'd targeted burst out of the ground beneath her while she was still descending, letting loose three kunai and some kind of projectile rock jutsu.

"Looks like we figured right when we guessed your companion was the bigger threat," he mocked as she fell helplessly toward his attack. "What kind of ninja can't recognize a basic decoy tactic?"

"That's a good question," Sakura whispered into the man's ear as she held a kunai to his throat, his attack passing straight through her now-dissolving _bunshin_. She'd used her _Meimei no jutsu_ to approach him the second he'd shown himself, and released it once she had him trapped so as not to waste chakra.

"What…how…" the man sputtered, clearly at a loss as to how she'd gotten the drop on him. He didn't get the chance to finish the question, because Naruto dropped down in front of them with a hard look on his face.

"The two guys you came with are dead," he said plainly. Sakura felt the man shudder slightly in her grip.

"How is that possible?" he asked. "They should have been able to handle someone of your level easily."

"Really?" Naruto asked, pretending to be intrigued. Or maybe he wasn't pretending. Who knew? "You guys usually fight jounin? It sure didn't seem like it."

"Jounin!?" the man yelped. "Im-impossible!"

Naruto shook his head in exasperation. "You guys are really bad at gathering information," he said. "Why did you attack us, anyway? We can't be specific targets or you'd know who we were, and we're not at war with your village." He looked quizzically at the man for a second and then asked, "What village are you from, anyway? I don't recognize that _hitai-ate_ at all." But for all the man spoke, Naruto might as well have been questioning a tree. The blond sighed, "Fine." He reached out and pulled off the man's _hitai-ate_, then held it up for Sakura to see. "Do you recognize this, Sakura-chan? You know a lot more about this sort of thing than me."

She looked at it. There were two horizontal wavy lines placed one over the other, like a drunken man trying to write the kanji for 'two'. It was one she recognized from Tsunade's files, but not one she'd ever seen in real life.

"He's from Dorogakure no Sato," she said. "The Village Hidden in the Mud." At this, Naruto burst out laughing.

"MUD? Are you serious? That's hilarious!" He appeared to temporarily forget he was supposed to be questioning somebody as he doubled over in laughter. "That's the stupidest name for a village I've ever heard! If I lived there, I think I'd run away!"

His amusement only served to infuriate the man still trapped in her grasp, who shouted, "How dare you mock my village! You ignorant Leaf scum! You just wait; the Tsuchikage has put a bounty on the head of any and all Leaf ninja so large every shinobi village in the entire region will be after you. Then we'll see who's laughing." Naruto abruptly stopped laughing and looked at her purposefully, and with a small amount of distaste she applied pressure and drew her kunai across the man's throat, forever silencing him.

"A bounty on all of us, huh?" Naruto murmured, as much to himself as to her. "The old hag's definitely gonna wanna know about this." He bit his thumb and performed a few quick hand seals.

"_Kuchiyose no jutsu."_

A small orange toad Sakura vaguely recognized appeared in a puff of smoke.

"What's up, Boss?" the toad asked.

"Gamakichi, I need you to deliver a message to the old lady for me, okay? She might already know, but the Tsuchikage put a bounty out on all Leaf ninja, so shinobi from other villages are going to be going after us. The Mud village already is."

"The _Mud_ village?" Gamakichi asked incredulously. Sakura wasn't sure if toads could laugh or not, but she could tell this one was highly amused regardless.

"That's what I said," responded Naruto with a smirk. "But forget about that. Can you deliver the message?"

"Sure thing, Boss. I'm on it." The toad hopped away without another word.

"Well, that was kind of a mood killer," Naruto remarked dryly after the toad was out of sight. Sakura couldn't help but agree. While they still enjoyed each other's company and managed to keep up conversation for the rest of the trip, the jovial, cheerful attitude they'd set out with had been lost. Maybe this mission wasn't going to be so easy after all.

-

Hayashimi Inago leapt through the great trees of the Forest Country with a carefree grace that gave away his years of familiarity with them. For Inago, simply travelling in a straight line was far too boring; he preferred to zigzag as much as he could without wasting time as well as twisting and turning in midair in a way that gave any trip he made the appearance of a competitive tumbling routine.

To anyone who didn't know him, it would look like he wasn't even watching where he was going, yet miraculously he never missed a beat in his own personal rhythm and his step never faltered. And he always seemed to manage to get where he was going.

Today, his destination was his home of _Kigakure no Sato_, the Village Hidden in the Trees. The message he had been sent via squirrel (a special breed of squirrel found in the Tree village and trained for messenger work) said that they were expecting delegates from the Leaf Village and that he was to be ready at the village entrance to greet them. Why they wanted him of all people for this mission remained a mystery, but either way it would be difficult to greet anyone at the village entrance if he wasn't there.

Inago knew that the Leaf village was currently at war with not only the Rock to the north, but with the Cloud, the Mist and the Sound as well. He didn't envy them at all, and was quite sure he knew exactly why they were paying his village a visit. He was also pretty sure he knew what the village leaders would say: Konoha was too valuable an ally to abandon at such a crucial period, but at the same time it would be a tremendous risk to enter the conflict openly at such an early stage. Maybe that was part of the reason he'd been assigned this mission…

The village came into view, and he made his way toward it at a somewhat more casual pace now. Whatever delegates were arriving would enter his vision before they reached the entrance, so there was no more need to rush.

However, on one jump that had him turning over backwards in a way that had him facing the ground, he saw something that made him reconsider his decision. Two foreign shinobi were creeping along the forest floor, their attention focused on the narrowing road that would taper off to little more than a game trail before entering the Hidden Tree Village. He landed his jump and looked over to the road to determine their target, a feeling deep in his gut already telling him what he was going to see.

Two more foreign shinobi were walking along the road casually and engaged in laid-back conversation. He didn't need to be close enough to see their _hitai-ate_ to know that these were the Leaf ninja he was supposed to be meeting. Cursing their inattentiveness, Inago shot off through the trees again so as to cut both them and their assailants off. He ascended to the canopy as he went so as to better conceal himself, and once he was in position above the road at just before it reached its narrowest, he stopped to wait.

Inago watched the scene play out with a growing sense of aggravation. The two Leaf nin, one a male with wild and spiky blonde hair, and one a female with short pink hair (_pink_?)_, _continued to stroll along without a care in the world, completely oblivious to the ambush they were headed straight into. On the west side of the road, the two shinobi he'd seen earlier were coming ever closer to them, and on the east side three more were creeping in.

'_Did they send genin or something?'_ Inago thought irritably. At least now he felt he knew a large part of why he'd been the one sent to greet them. Arming each hand with a kunai, he prepared to make his move. Rather than jump straight down, which would provide a greater force of impact and allow for perhaps a second or two more in favour of surprise, he ran full tilt down the trunk of the tree he was in toward his target. It was slower, but it provided a more accurate strike and an easier mode of evasion should he be discovered before reaching his objective.

He was about two-thirds of the way down when the ambushing ninja sprang their trap. "Kuso," he muttered angrily. He was just about to leap the last section of the tree when the two Leaf ninja sprang into action. The blond one split into five and went off in all directions, while the pink-haired kunoichi parried an attack levelled at her and struck back with enough force to shatter a small boulder. He didn't have time to register his surprise before he had to make his own move, launching himself laterally off the tree trunk towards the nearest enemy at a speed gravity could never hope to match. It was far better than the vertical attack he had planned for.

At the last second he spun, and swinging his right leg forward he caught the enemy ninja at the base of the head with the bridge of his foot. He heard the unfortunate man's neck snap and knew that already the number of enemies had been decreased.

No sooner had his feet touched the ground however, than he heard several shuriken flying toward him on his left. He leapt straight into the air and performed the quick set of hand seals for the first technique he'd ever learned.

'_Juhi shuriken no jutsu!'_ At once, large chunks of bark from the surrounding trees tore away from their trunks and hurled themselves toward Inago's attacker. It didn't matter that they wouldn't connect; they weren't meant to. They were a set-up for the next jutsu he was already forming seals for. '_Katon: Katsume no jutsu!' _At once, chakra-fuelled fire flared up around his hands, extending into long claw-like protrusions from each finger. It was a close-combat technique he'd developed himself after becoming a chuunin at sixteen.

He rotated his body in midair in order to push himself off from another tree trunk, and once again launched himself at his foe. This one was ready though, or maybe just faster than the last one, because he jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being hit. It didn't matter; using his outstretched arms to alter his momentum, he flipped over and pushed of the ground with his powerful legs. The flaming claws on his hands left deep tracks in the forest floor.

The enemy had no chance this time. He hadn't recovered from his previous dodge yet and Inago was moving too fast and was too close. One slash of his right hand not only took the enemy ninja's head off, but left deep, cauterized gouges in his upper torso.

Even as the decapitated form of his opponent collapsed to the ground, Inago scanned the area around him for additional attackers. When he detected nothing, he ended the jutsu on his hands, for it was a dangerous technique that could severely burn him if used for too long.

A few moments later, the two Konoha shinobi he'd been so worried about came loping through the underbrush in his direction. He made sure his body language was non-threatening, in case they hadn't noticed that he'd entered the fight on their side.

"Thanks for the help," the blond one said. He looked a little scuffed up, but did not appear to be injured. The kunoichi was holding her upper left arm with her right hand and was squinting with a slightly swollen right eye, but otherwise seemed fine.

"It was my pleasure," Inago said, anxious to get off on the right foot with these two. "It's my job to greet you after all. I didn't think I'd be doing a very good job of it if I let you get killed before I could say hello."

"So you're expecting us, then?" the kunoichi asked.

"Of course," Inago answered, surprised she didn't know this. "Your Hokage sent word to our village council the other day that she would be sending two delegates to our village."

"Oh yeah, she did say she was gonna do that," the blond said, more to himself than to anyone. Inago saw the kunoichi roll her eyes and had to suppress a chuckle. He had a feeling he was going to like these two.

"I'm Hayashimi Inago," he said, introducing himself. "Jounin of the Hidden Tree Village and chosen escort of the delegates from the Leaf. That would be you, I guess."

"My name is Haruno Sakura," said the kunoichi, bowing slightly. "Chuunin of the Hidden Leaf Village, and my _commander_ (she threw the man in question a sidelong glance) over there is Uzumaki Naruto." Uzumaki grinned, and the woman called Sakura rolled her eyes again. She'd announced his superior rank in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm. There was definitely an interesting dynamic between the two of them, and they'd obviously worked together many times before.

"It's a pleasure," Inago said. "Now, if you don't mind my asking, why were these men attacking you just outside our village?"

The blond – Naruto – snorted in apparent disgust. "The damn Tsuchikage's put out a bounty on all Konoha ninja," he spat. "This is the third time we've been attacked in four days. It took us twice as long to get here as it should have. What village are these bastards from, anyway?" The question sounded like an afterthought, but after he said it Naruto walked over to the disembodied head of the ninja Inago had just killed and yanked off the _hitai-ate_.

"It's the Ash again," Sakura answered before he'd even gotten a look at it. "I saw it on the one who attacked me first."

"Well at least it wasn't someone else," Naruto grumbled, throwing the _hitai-ate_ to the ground in contempt. "Two villages hunting us is bad enough. We don't need any more."

"Well, in any case, let's get inside the village before anyone else shows up to kill you," Inago said. "If you'll follow me."

"How much farther is it?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, we're nearly there now," Inago replied. "We'll be inside in a minute."

"Really?" Naruto asked incredulously. "I don't see anything that looks like a village."

"Well no, you wouldn't," Inago answered cryptically. Hiding a smirk, he led them into the trees.

-

Naruto allowed Sakura to go ahead of him as Hayashimi Inago led them into the tree village. The young man who had come to greet them looked to be in his early twenties, with somewhat unkempt brown hair that obscured his ears but not his face. He was slightly taller than Naruto himself and had a solid build, and he wore what appeared to be the standard garb of Ki shinobi, which wasn't very different from the Konoha outfit. His vest had scroll pouches and pockets on the sides rather than on the front, and the clothes underneath were an odd mixture of green and brown. It probably blended in very well with the surrounding forest.

Oddly enough, Naruto found they were climbing higher into the trees. He thought briefly that maybe there was a wall to get over like in Konoha, but quickly dismissed the idea. There would be no point in a wall if it was that easy to avoid. The trees here were much bigger, and much closer together than in any of the lands around Konoha – even the Forest of Death. Walking through them was almost as easy as walking along the ground.

"We don't have a wall for obvious reasons," Inago explained as he flew backwards through the air in front of him (he must have noticed Naruto looking around for one). Their guide seemed to enjoy travelling in a very erratic fashion. "Instead we use booby traps, and we change their placement frequently. Anyone trying to get in without a guide wouldn't have a very fun time of it." He said this with a rather nasty grin and flipped back over so he was facing forward again.

"So we're entering the village now?" Sakura asked.

"That's right," Inago said. "You'll be able to see the outskirts of the village in just a moment." They continued leaping, and all of a sudden Naruto saw it. It was a village unlike anything Naruto had ever seen or imagined. Everything was built in the trees, with nothing less than twenty-five feet off the ground. Houses, shops, wooden pathways constructed like bridges that served as roads (probably for the civilian population), and everything else a village needed was all built firmly among the thickly grown, enormous trees of the Forest Country.

"It's beautiful," Sakura exclaimed as they came to a stop at the edge of the village. "I've never seen anything like it."

Inago looked pleased at their appreciation of his home if the proud smile on his face was any indication.

"The council building is up a level, in the center of the village," he said. "That's where you want to go."

At the words 'up a level,' Naruto looked up and his jaw dropped. He heard Sakura gasp beside him. Above them, all the way to the canopy as far as they could tell, stretched tier after tier of more of the houses and wooden walkways. Here and there are ramp or a ladder connected one level with the next, but in a village where most of the population could simply rebound off a tree trunk to move up or down, they were few and far between.

"Lead the way, then," Naruto managed to say after the awe had subsided somewhat. If there was ever a true 'look' that gave one the feel they were in a ninja village without even having to be told, Naruto thought, this was it. Konoha was a wonderful village and he loved it very much, but in a lot of ways it resembled most of the other towns he'd visited. Here, however, everything about the place simply screamed 'shinobi'.

Inago leapt up into the infrastructure, headed for the level above them and Naruto and Sakura hastened to follow him. They arrived at a scene much like what they had just left, with wooden walkways that spanned the limbs of giant trees serving the part of streets, and houses and buildings nestled into the trunks and branches all along them. The walkways were full of people walking about and conducting their business, much like the streets of Konoha would be on any given day. These people didn't seem to take the fact that they lived dozens of feet off the ground as anything but perfectly normal.

Inago led them along the widest of these walkways for several minutes before pointing out a large structure ahead of them.

"That's where the village council meets," he said, indicating a dome-shaped wooden building that could have housed thirty people comfortably. It looked like an enormous upside-down bowl carved out of a single piece of wood, which Naruto couldn't figure out because not even the trees of the Forest Country were that huge. Also, unlike the other buildings they'd seen which were set up in the trees themselves, this one appeared to be at the confluence of several walkways, essentially in the middle of everything – with nothing to support it.

"How did you build something so big up here?" Sakura asked, echoing Naruto's thoughts.

"It's actually supported by large limbs from four of the nearby trees that happen to intersect underneath it, not to mention several smaller branches as well," Inago explained. "That site was chosen because it was in the open and thus available to everyone, and also because it gives the illusion of being on the ground, which is subconsciously comforting to foreign visitors." He didn't add the implied 'like yourselves', but finished with, "And of course, because the intersecting limbs actually make such a construct possible."

They approached the front of the building, which had a huge archway carved for a door with the kanji for tree centered above it. They were met by a slightly shorter ninja in a long grey coat with black hair parted in the center and glasses with rectangular frames.

"Keitaro!" Inago greeted the young man cheerfully, reaching out to clasp his hand. "They've got you on gopher duty today?"

The man called Keitaro grimaced but laughed. "Yeah, looks that way." He glanced at Naruto and Sakura. "These are the shinobi from the Leaf, then?" Inago nodded. "All right," Keitaro said. He turned and addressed the Konoha ninja. "Let me go in and tell them you're here. We weren't actually expecting you this soon." He turned and entered the wooden dome, leaving them to wait for his return.

"Do you think they'll want to help us?" Sakura asked Inago.

"I don't see you having any trouble with them," Inago said. "But then again, I'm not one of the ones who get to make these decisions."

Before they could continue, Keitaro re-emerged. "They'll see you now," he said. Naruto and Sakura made to enter along with their escort. "By the way, Inago," Keitaro said to his comrade as they passed, "Sami was looking for you this morning."

"Was she, now?" Inago queried with a delighted smirk. "Well, she'll just have to wait, won't she?"

"Who's Sami?" Naruto asked. "Your girlfriend or something?"

Inago grinned wide in amusement. "In her mind, maybe," was all he said, and Naruto was curious, but didn't get to ask more because Inago remained at the entrance as their escort while he indicated that they should step to the center of the domed area.

It was a wide open space, but the first thing that struck Naruto was that there were no chairs or furniture of any kind, save for the six seats behind a long table on the right side from the entrance, upon which four men and two women now sat. Apparently the Tree was of the opinion that anyone brought before the village council should not have the luxury of being comfortable during the experience.

"You are Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura of Konohagakure no Sato, are you not?" asked the third man from the left in a loud, crisp voice that brooked no hemming or hawing. Naruto didn't seem much point to the question; if these people weren't already sure of who he and Sakura were, they wouldn't have let them come this far. Nevertheless, he obliged.

"Yes sir, we are."

"And what brings you here to our village?"

Naruto glanced at Sakura out of the corner of his eye. One of the first decisions he'd made and discussed with her upon setting out for this mission was that she was to do all the talking in diplomatic situations whenever possible. She was much better at it, both in terms of tact and actually understanding what was being said. If the Tree thought he was deferring to her though – technically his subordinate – things could get tricky.

But he needn't have worried. Sakura stepped into her role without missing so much as a beat.

"Unfortunately, the war."

"There is no war here – unless you've brought it with you," said the old man slowly. The implied threat was disheartening, but Naruto reminded himself that talks between shinobi often began this way.

"With all due respect, sir," Sakura said calmly, "Konoha and Ki have been allies for decades. We feel it would be in the interest of both of our villages if you were to offer us your aid in this conflict. However, if that is not possible, the Hokage requests that you at least not take actions that would hinder us."

"We would certainly not, be assured of that," said the woman on the far right. "Kigakure is not so without honor as to directly betray a longstanding ally in such a manner. However, openly offering assistance would put us in a difficult position. Already your ninja are being hunted for bounty by ninja not officially involved in the conflict. Where is the assurance that such contracts would not be put out on our own shinobi as well? We wish to help our friends and allies in the Leaf, but we must think of our own people first."

The woman's speech shocked Naruto. How had she known they were being hunted? No one would know that yet except…an image of a handshake outside the council dome, and the man named Keitaro going in ahead to "announce" them. The blond cursed inwardly, but kept his features schooled. It was incredibly difficult, as his first impulse was to shout at them, but he reminded himself just how important this was and held his tongue. For the moment.

"We know you have to think of yourselves," Sakura said sensitively, "and we know how much we're asking of you. However, at this time we feel the risks are small. As you know, we are allied in this war with the villages of Sunagakure and Yukigakure, neither of which have bounties placed on their shinobi. From evidence gathered through captured enemies and bounty hunters alike, in addition to statements made by the Mizukage himself, the focus of the enemies' aggression appears to be Konoha alone."

"That may be true," said the other woman, who was seated on the second seat from the left. "But if so, it would be even more dangerous to declare ourselves your allies. If their main goal is to eliminate Konoha, they are going to be especially hard on anyone who helped you."

Sakura's triumphant smile was so small that Naruto only caught it because he knew her so well and because he was standing right next to her. He doubted any of the council members saw it, but he knew what it meant: she had them.

"That may be true," she began, "but the reality is they're going to be especially hard on anyone who didn't help them, which you've already said you don't plan to do. Also, the Forest country and the Fire Country share a border, and your village is one of the closest to both Konoha and Oto, one of the primary aggressors in this war. If you think you'll remain unaffected if Konoha is defeated simply by remaining neutral, you're mistaken."

"You make many good points," said the man who had spoken first. "Without promising anything then, we would ask what Konoha would expect from us as allies in this war."

Now it was Naruto's turn to speak.

"What do you mean what would we expect? We would want you to help defeat our enemies. What else would allies do?" He tried very hard to keep any tone of frustration out of his voice, but it was very difficult. "And from us you get any support you need on whatever you're doing. That's what allies are for, isn't it? Helping each other with what you both need?"

Everyone seemed to grin in an infuriatingly patronizing way at these words, and the man who'd asked the question spoke up again.

"That's a very idealistic and naïve view of the world," he said. "As shinobi, we can't afford to go around helping everyone just because we want to, no matter how good our relations with them may be. We must first consider the ramifications such acts could have upon ourselves, and ascertain what might be gained accordingly. Has Konoha fallen so far as to have forgotten this?"

"What a stupid, selfish way to look at the world!" Naruto shouted, unable to contain himself any longer. Next to him he could actually sense Sakura's irritation and frustration with him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. "What's the point of calling yourself 'allies' with someone if you never back it up? How can you call yourselves shinobi if you only ever do something just because it's good for you? Don't you understand what it means to help someone? To protect someone? If you're only in things for yourself, you wouldn't even be able to do that! And then what's the point of being a shinobi at all?"

He'd reached full volume by the end of his rant and the entire council was frozen in shock. By the look of things, no one had ever dared shout at them before. Even Inago, who Naruto spied on the edge of his vision, was standing with his mouth agape and wide, unbelieving eyes.

For several seconds the entire hall stood in silence (with Sakura hanging her head), and then it was interrupted before anyone on the council had a chance to recover their wits and respond.

"Please excuse the interruption!" came a voice from the entrance, and when Naruto looked over he saw a man clad all in loose, black cloth with a _bokutou_ draped across his back and a very anxious expression on his face. "We have an urgent message from the Hidden Grass Village!"

"The Grass?" Inago questioned. He had perked up instantly at the man's news.

"Raku-san!" Sakura exclaimed, though she may as well not have said anything at all for the notice anyone took.

"What is the news?" one of the council members asked. Raku (how did Sakura-chan know this guy?) walked over and handed them the scroll. The old man who'd done most of the talking to Naruto and Sakura looked at it, and then looked up to announce what it said.

"Kusagakure has come under attack," he said gravely. Naruto reacted instantly, sure of what this meant, and Sakura did the same. However, the councilman waved them off. "Not by Orochimaru's coalition," he said. "In fact, not by ninja at all. It seems the daimyo of the Grass Country has decided he no longer wants a shinobi village within his borders. He is attacking them en masse with his entire army, plus several bands of mercenaries he's managed to gather together."

"Pheh," Naruto scoffed. "That won't be a problem. No samurai or mercenary army would be able to take on a ninja village – especially one as strong as the Grass."

"Under normal circumstances, you would be correct, Uzumaki-san," said another man on the council. "However, the Grass still have not fully recovered from their war with the Thorn six years ago. Also, the sheer numbers of the daimyo's forces alone pose a threat. And if the daimyo managed to hire any foreign ninja to help his cause, then the Grass face a difficult time indeed."

"We should move to help them," said Inago suddenly. During the conversation he'd somehow managed to work his way across the room so he was now standing very near Naruto and Sakura.

"Hayashimi-san, have you not been present for the conversation we've just been having with these two Leaf ninja?" one of the councilwomen chided him. "We cannot afford to move so recklessly, even if it is in an effort to help one of our allies. This must be discussed first." She turned to the man called Raku. "Kashiwa-san, I want you to call a meeting of the all the village's jounin. Immediately."

"Right away," Raku intoned with a bow. He vanished.

"I don't believe this!" Naruto shouted. "This really is how you treat your allies, isn't it?" He turned to Sakura. "Let's go, Sakura-chan."

"Eh?" Sakura's eyebrows almost disappeared into her hair. It was as if she didn't know what he was talking about. She should know better.

"We're going to go help them," he said firmly. "The Grass are our allies, too. We'll be back to finish this when we're done," he spat, shooting a venomous look at the Tree Village council. He turned and stormed out of the dome, Sakura scrambling to catch up.

"Naruto, are you serious?" Sakura asked when she reached his side.

"Of course I am!" Naruto replied, moving forward with a very purposeful stride. "We'll show these guys how allies are supposed to act. Besides," he added in a much lower voice, "Kiba, Hinata and Shino are there. They wouldn't just abandon the Grass either, and we should help them."

"You're right!" Sakura whispered, her eyes widening in realization. Then she stopped. "But…Naruto…"

"Eh? What is it, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked coming to a stop along side her.

"We don't know how to get out of this village," she pointed out.

Naruto gaped for a moment before scratching the back of his head and looking around. "I guess we don't, do we?" he said. "I really don't want to fight through a bunch of traps to get out of here."

"I can help you with that," came a voice from above them. No sooner had they looked up to find its source than said source dropped down in front of them.

"Inago-san!" exclaimed Sakura.

"I'm coming with you," the Tree jounin announced.

"Eh? Why?" Naruto asked. "I thought that council of yours said to wait and talk before anybody did anything."

"I have my reasons," Inago said evasively. "Now do you want my help or not? I'm leaving right now."

"Yes, we do!" Sakura said quickly. "Thank you, Inago-san."

"Let's go," was all he said. He took off at a remarkable pace, leading the two of them out of the village in the same fashion he lead them in. Naruto noticed that the path they were taking was much different, and commented on it.

"We're not going the same way, of course," Inago explained. "To get to Kusa no Kuni, we have to go through Taki no Kuni. The exit leading toward the Waterfall country is farther west than the one headed toward the Fire Country. It's faster this way."

They continued on for a few minutes until the houses started thinning out, indicating they were near the outskirts of the village. Inago informed them they were about to leave the village's boundaries, and immediately after that they heard a loud voice hailing them from somewhere above and behind them.

"Inago-sensei!"

The three shinobi stopped and turned, and a young girl of perhaps ten or eleven years of age came flying out of the trees towards them.

"I heard you were back in the village!" she said excitedly before coming to a stop right in front of them. She looked up to Inago with a wide smile and a face flushed from exertion; she was panting to catch her breath.

"Who are they, Sensei?" the girl asked, indicating Naruto and Sakura.

"They're shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village," Inago said. "I was leading them outside of our boundaries, and then we're headed to the Hidden Grass Village."

The girl's face fell instantly. Even as agitated as he was, Naruto had to admit this girl was a pretty cute kid. She carried with her an air of enthusiasm and a love of life that was contagious just from looking at her. The dimples on her cheeks indicated that the scowl she now wore was not her standard expression, and when she'd smiled before, there had been a glint in her eye that Naruto had never seen in any other person, shinobi or no. Her brown hair fell to her jawline on both sides and now framed her face in what was a very convincing pout.

"But you just got back!" she wailed. "And you promised you'd show me a new jutsu you learned!" Naruto grinned in spite of himself. This kid definitely reminded him of someone.

"I know, and I'm sorry, Sami-chan. But I won't be gone long, and I'll show you something cool when I get back, I promise. But I have to go."

The girl seemed to sense something in his words, because she held his gaze for a second or two and then nodded.

"Okay. But I'll hold you to that. Be careful, okay Sensei?"

"Nn." Inago then turned to Naruto and Sakura. "Let's go." He leapt from his perch and continued leading them through the many hidden snares surrounding his home, the girl watching them leave with a thoughtful look on her face and waving.

"So that was the Sami your friend was talking about earlier?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah," Inago said. "I teach specialist field classes for the academy sometimes, and she latched on to me for some reason when she was eight. It's been three years and I can't get rid of her." He allowed himself a smile. "Not that I'd want to, mind."

"She's a good kid," Naruto observed.

"She is," the Tree nin agreed. He landed on the ground, signifying they were beyond the village borders and now fully on their way to a battle that could very well come to a close before they even arrived. Naruto and Sakura landed behind him and the three ran onward. "I only hope becoming a shinobi doesn't ruin her outlook on life."

"It won't," Naruto replied with confidence. Inago didn't ask how he was so sure.

- - - -

The beginning of this chapter was fun to write. It's difficult to avoid non-stop drama and angst in a story that begins during a war already taking place, but I'm doing my best. Please let me know what you think; I only got four reviews for the last chapter. That makes me a sad panda. ,(

Many thanks to my prereader SJR for catching some stupid mistakes and formatting issues I probably never would have noticed. And for giving me a laugh by misreading _Kusagakure_ as "Village Hidden in the Shit". That will never cease to be funny.

Mad props also go to my other prereader HitokiriOTD for making this chapter flow so much better than it did in the draft I sent him. He even caught a few typos of his own.

Translations follow:

Juhi shuriken no jutsu – Tree bark shuriken technique

Katon: Katsume no jutsu – Fire element: Fire claws technique


	4. Episode III: Kusagakure

Behold, the mighty Episode III. Stuff happens, events take place and if this actually goes the way I plan, things might actually go so far as to _occur_. It sounds outrageous now, but wait until you see it. It's going to be awesome.

And also: To all of you folks out there who keep adding this story to your alerts or favorites or whatever, would it kill you to leave a review? Honestly. This is fun, but I have other things I enjoy doing as well and a little motivation to keep this going would be nice. I don't care if you think it sucks and you just want to list the reasons why, just leave something, eh? That said, thank you very much to everyone who has read this story and left a review so far. I enjoy hearing what you think, and finding out both what you like and don't like about the story.

Rant over.

And of course to those of you who do take the time to leave a review: thanks ever so much. Y'all rock hardcore.

SHINOBI WARS: Episode III – Kusagakure

"You should have seen Konohamaru-san, Onee-chan. He was terrified we would fail the mission and that Iwashi-sensei wouldn't recommend us for C-rank missions when it was time."

It was one of those rare times when neither of them had any work or training to do, and Hanabi was relating the story of her team's first mission to her older sister. The mission in question involved tracking down a runaway dog that a local shop owner had recently adopted and promptly lost.

"So what happened?" Hinata asked, trying to refrain from giggling. Her team had been given a similar mission back when she was a rookie, only it was with a cat and had proven very difficult for Kiba-kun.

"Well, naturally I located the dog easily," Hanabi said, implying the use of her _Byakkugan_. "It was catching it that proved difficult. Konohamaru-san kept yelling at it every time we caught up to it which caused it to run away again." Hanabi shook her head in exasperation. "I know he would not be foolish enough to do something like that if we were facing an actual enemy, but it was very frustrating."

"Yes, I can see how it would be," Hinata said, still smiling.

"Before we caught up to it the fourth time, Moegi-chan and I agreed that we would need to keep him silent. So when we spotted the dog, I jumped him from behind and held him long enough for Moegi-chan to subdue the target. Luckily she had thought to bring a blowgun with some tranquilizer darts so it was fairly easy."

Hinata was pleased to see that her sister had progressed from referring to her female teammate as 'Moegi-san' to calling her 'Moegi-chan'. She was wise enough not to comment on it, however.

"Needless to say, Konohamaru-san was not pleased with me," she said, and a twinge of annoyance spiked both her tone and expression.

"Well, at least you accomplished the mission," Hinata said, suppressing her giggles again.

"I suppose so. But Konohamaru-san is so ambitious for a C-rank mission that he is not able to properly focus on the missions we are given." The unspoken plea for advice was made all the more obvious through direct eye contact.

"That is not unusual," Hinata told her kindly. "Kiba-kun was like that for a while as well, and Sakura-san has told me before how bad Naruto-kun was at D-rank missions." She smiled fondly as she thought of that. "I myself had trouble on occasion, to be honest. It comes from a desire to prove oneself. Konohamaru-san is frustrated that he is not being given a mission where he can demonstrate his abilities, and is allowing himself to become flustered and less capable because of it."

"Well I understand that," Hanabi said. "It's frustrating for me, too. Does he think he's the only one whose abilities outstrip the requirements for a D-rank mission? But as shinobi, we should treat each job we are given as if it is the most important thing there is to us."

"Yes, that is true," Hinata agreed. "Perhaps you should remind him as much."

"And have him accuse me of trying to boss him around again?" Hanabi scoffed. "I can't tell him anything. If I do, I'm just being an 'arrogant Hyuuga'."

Hinata frowned slightly at the insult to her clan. They could indeed be arrogant at times, and she was among the first to admit that. But that was no reason to be rude. She decided to let it slide in the interest of helping her sister and her team.

"Pay attention to how you say it to him," Hinata suggested. "Try your best not to _tell _him, but to gently remind him. After all, you are on the same team and it is only natural that you should want to help him do well."

"I'll try, Onee-chan," Hanabi said. Then her face fell. "I shouldn't have snapped at him on our very first mission. We got along all right before that, but now he thinks I'm nothing but a bossy know-it-all. I'm really trying not to be!"

"I know you are, Hanabi-chan," said Hinata, consoling her. "But, forgive me, old habits cannot be broken overnight. It will take time and dedication, but if you truly wish to change yourself you will succeed."

"When did you get so smart, Onee-chan?" Hanabi pouted. "You're so different from how you used to be. I wish I could change like you did."

"I'm not that different," Hinata said, though she felt herself blushing a little bit. "I have more confidence than I used to, but that is due as much to having people who support me as it is to my own desire to change. Even Father, who was once very critical of me, has grown to be very encouraging."

"He's proud of you, Onee-chan," Hanabi said. Hinata was definitely blushing this time, and it was accompanied by a satisfying flutter of pride in her chest.

"Perhaps," Hinata allowed. "I think Neji-niisan's fight with Naruto-kun affected him as much as it did Neji-niisan himself. He has acted differently toward everyone ever since then. But I do believe he is pleased to some degree that I have proven myself a competent ninja, which he always feared I would not."

Hanabi lowered her head. But what she was about to say, Hinata did not find out. Their father abruptly entered the room where they were talking and looked directly at her.

"Forgive me for interrupting," he said politely.

"Of course, father," Hinata said. "We were merely discussing Hanabi-chan's first mission. It was this morning." A trace of a smile graced her lips, but she really didn't want to giggle about it in front of him.

"I see," he replied. Hinata thought she saw the ghost of a smile on his face as well. "Hinata, your teammate Aburame Shino has arrived at the compound saying that you have been given a mission. As to the nature of this mission, he is not at liberty to say, but I have a fair idea of what it might be. Hinata, I don't need to remind you…"

"I understand my responsibilities, Father, and as with every mission I have ever undertaken, I am prepared to accept the risk." She was being disrespectful, interrupting him, but she'd suffered through this conversation for many years and was growing tired of it.

"I know you are," he said, ignoring her rudeness. "But I have already lost a brother because of my family's abilities. I do not wish to lose a daughter as well. I cannot express to you the pain that comes from a lost sibling, and I do not want your sister to have to live through that, either."

His openness and sincerity took her aback, but only for a moment. She recovered quickly and offered him a warm smile.

"Please do not worry about me, Father. You and Neji-niisan have taught me well, and I will have Shino-kun and Kiba-kun with me. I promise I will return safely, just as I always have." She paused momentarily as she fondly remembered from whom she'd first heard her next statement. "And I never go back on my word."

Her father seemed to take a moment to consider this, and then nodded. "Very well. I wish you luck. You should take your equipment with you; Aburame-san said your team is to leave the village as soon as possible."

"Understood," she said. "Thank you, Father." Hanabi came over to hug her goodbye, and she stopped by her own room to pick up her equipment before heading to the front of the compound to meet Shino. She found him standing there as dispassionately as always, waiting patiently for her.

"Shino-kun!" She called as she approached. She looked around briefly but did not see her other teammate anywhere.

"Kiba is meeting us at the north gate," Shino said simply. She nodded in understanding and they departed. She knew better than to ask what the mission was before they met up with Kiba, but she wanted to make conversation rather than walk in silence.

"Will you be our jounin-commander for this mission, Shino-kun?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job," she told him sweetly, smiling at him. He didn't respond, but she hadn't been expecting him to. Shino rarely said much, and he wasn't very keen on token gestures of gratitude.

They met Kiba at the north gate. He was sitting astride Akamaru and greeted them enthusiastically.

"All right! Our first mission as a team without Kurenai!" he cheered as they gathered together. "So what is it?" he asked Shino. "You said it's a Class B, so it should be interesting."

"We are to travel to the Hidden Grass Village and ascertain their intentions involving the war. If possible, we are to persuade them to ally themselves to us. If they refuse, we are to inform them that there is a standing bounty on any shinobi of chuunin rank or above from any village positioned against us."

"That's it?" Kiba demanded, clearly disappointed. "We're just some trumped up ambassadors?"

"You may find it less than exciting," Shino said condescendingly, "but it is extremely important and very dangerous. Our enemies are going to be looking for squads of Konoha shinobi moving on their own."

Kiba still didn't look happy. "This is such a drag," he grumbled. Hinata giggled.

"Kiba-kun, you sound almost like Nara-kun."

"Nah, Shikamaru wouldn't say anything like that," Kiba said, smirking sarcastically. "He'd say it was 'troublesome' or something." Hinata smiled to herself; her teammate seemed to have regained his good humor easily enough.

"We should get going," Shino told them.

"All right," Kiba declared. "If we've got to do this, let's get it over with. I don't want to be stuck playing diplomat for any longer than necessary. We could be out there killing the enemy."

Shino didn't respond, but began walking out of the village. Hinata and Kiba fell in to step behind him.

"You're in a good mood," said Kiba jovially from Hinata's left.

"Of course I am," she smiled at him. "I am with you and Shino-kun."

-

Shino sat perfectly still in the tree he had chosen for his hiding place, focusing every one of his senses on observing the forest around him. He had left a bug clone with his other two teammates, who were camping a short way off the side of the road. Kiba was on watch while Hinata and his clone slept, and it looked like he was going to doze off any minute. Akamaru already had.

The three of them had sensed themselves being stalked by an unknown enemy earlier in the day – only their second day out – and had kept close tabs on their pursuers ever since. Team Kurenai (even without Kurenai) had long been without equal in Konoha when it came to surveillance, and they often took advantage of this fact, and that their enemies were often ignorant of it.

A small wasp buzzed by his right ear, indicating that one of the enemies had moved in on Hinata's position, having fallen for Kiba's ruse. It was almost time to move. He watched as the enemy, now visible to him, crept closer to the apparently sleeping Hinata. He had evidently chosen to kill her by hand rather than by some kind of ninjutsu – a dicey decision either way. By hand, there was always the possibility of a trap, whereas by ninjutsu, there was the possibility of it taking to long and alerting your enemy, or that it would fail. In calculating his risks, their would-be assassin had fortunately underestimated his targets, which made it that much easier for them.

Almost simultaneously, several things happened. Hinata's attacker reached over her with a kunai drawn, ready to slit her throat. Meanwhile another assailant had dropped silently out of a tree directly above Shino's clone with his own kunai pointing downward. Kiba jerked awake the instant the man was out of the tree and sent Akamaru after him. The unwary shinobi barely had time to register his surprise at his target dispersing into hundreds of insects before his throat was ripped out by a set of massive canines. At that same moment, the now-dead man's teammate uttered the tiniest grunt of surprise as his heart ripped apart in his chest, Hinata's palm having just struck him there. The two men fell to the ground in an almost synchronized motion, and another wasp flew in front of Shino's face from the left.

He wasted no time in moving to where the final enemy was hidden, and when he arrived he found the man splayed out on his chest after tripping, having almost torn his right foot off trying to escape; Kiba had managed to ensnare his ankle with wire before the attack had even begun.

"They're from the Smoke," Kiba said as Shino subdued the man with a tranquilizing venom from his bugs.

"Kemurigakure no Sato?" Shino questioned. "I suppose that is not surprising. The latest intelligence we have suggests they are still allied to the Rock."

"There aren't any more of them," Hinata informed them, coming over to join the discussion. She deactivated her _Byakkugan_ as she spoke.

"So we were right then; there were only three of them," Kiba said.

"Regardless, this is distressing," Shino said. "It means that our enemy is ahead of us in procuring allies to fight with them."

"We were already outnumbered four to three," Kiba lamented.

"This simply makes our current mission all the more important," Shino said.

"Do you think the Grass will be willing to help us?" Hinata asked.

"It's possible," Shino said, ordering his bugs to dispose of the bodies while he and his teammates went to get some real sleep. "The last time we were at war with the Rock, Kusa no Kuni was frequently used as a battleground. If they want to avoid that happening again, their best course of action would be to take a side, and they currently have better relations with Konoha than with Iwa."

"That's leaving a lot open," Kiba grunted. "What if they don't want to help? What if they decide they don't want a war fought in their country at all? Or worse," he shot a quick glance at Hinata, "what if they decide they'd be better off helping our enemies?"

"Hn," was the only sound Shino made.

"Don't worry, Kiba-kun" Hinata said, placing her hand on his arm, "I don't think it would come to that. And even if it does, the three of us have managed to escape from difficult situations before. As long as we are there for each other, I do not believe we will come to any harm."

"I hope you're right," Kiba said.

-

Two more days went by, and they were attacked thrice more: once by Smoke shinobi again, once by a team from the Hidden Ash village, and once by actual Rock ninja. The latter had been a jounin team out on a scouting mission, and Team Kurenai barely escaped with their lives. The battle had taken nearly half an hour from first encounter to last dying breath – abnormally long – and the team of Leaf ninja were forced to stop and recover for the remainder of the day. Hinata's growing medical skills were enough to ensure that they could continue their mission, but they were all aware that if they encountered any more hostile shinobi their chances of success or even survival would be low.

"The next time we detect an enemy group, we should move around them instead of setting a trap for them," Kiba said as they sat around their camp that night.

"That is unlike you," Shino pointed out.

"Yeah, well," Kiba sputtered. He wasn't happy having to say this, but it needed to be said. "We barely made it out of that one this morning. And we're low on supplies now. Who knows what the next enemy squad will be like? We'd be safer just making a break for the Hidden Grass."

"And what is your guarantee that we will be safe there?" Shino countered calmly. "You yourself posed the questions of whether or not we could rely on them. What if they turn us away? Or capture us and hand us to the enemy?"

Kiba once again shot a quick glance at Hinata, as he always did in situations like this. He knew she noticed, but he couldn't be worried about that at the moment.

"I agree with Shino-kun," the girl in question spoke up. "We should face any enemies who come after us before we reach our destination. That way, if the Grass is unfavorable towards us, we only have to deal with one problem at a time."

"Hinata, do you really think…" Kiba began, but she cut him off.

"Kiba-kun, I know you are worried more about me than about yourself," she said with a warm smile. "But please do not let that affect your judgment. You know what the best course of action is."

"I…well…I mean…" he tried to come up with another counter-argument, but he knew she was right. Finally he hung his head and sighed in defeat. "You're right; I'm sorry, Hinata."

"Don't be," she told him. "I am touched by your concern. But please remember that I am equally concerned for both of you."

"I know," he said. He did know, and it made him feel good that she was, but he couldn't help but remind himself that wherever they were, she was always at greater risk than either himself or his other teammate. All because of something she was born with and couldn't help having.

"We should sleep," Shino announced. "We should have arrived at the Hidden Grass Village today. We will need to set out early to make up for lost time."

"All right," Kiba agreed. "You two go to sleep. I'll take the first watch. No one's going to sneak up on me."

Shino nodded, and Hinata giggled.

"What's so funny?" he asked her.

"Oh, nothing," she said with a smile. "It's just that, two days ago, Kiba-kun, you were complaining that this mission was going to be boring."

-

Sorahana Taki was a jounin of the Hidden Grass Village, 22 years of age and an accomplished shinobi with a distinguished career. Presently she was standing in her sentry tower watching the eastern horizon. All around her were green fields of grass and shallow, rolling hills. Behind her sprawled out the Village Hidden in the Grass.

There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun shone brightly across the land, the air as clear as could be. In short, conditions were absolutely perfect for a sentry. But despite this, Taki couldn't help a feeling of uneasiness that lay in her gut. Disturbing rumors had been circulating recently throughout the Country of Grass, and they had heard nothing from the daimyo in over a month – far too long to be just a lack of noteworthy events.

Taki had sleek, jet black hair gathered in a ponytail that reached the base of her neck, and wore a green and black tunic that barely restrained her considerably large breasts, and ended in a skirt that reached to mid-thigh. Underneath she wore a netted bodysuit with short sleeves and leggings that went to her knees. She also sported an honor-mark of two mirrored right triangles on her forehead. It was a mark given to those shinobi of the Grass who reach the rank of jounin before turning seventeen.

The war involving the five – no, six, she reminded herself – great shinobi villages and the Sound was escalating by the day, threatening to envelop her village the same way as the previous war – the one she was born directly after. The village elders knew that sooner or later emissaries from Konohagakure no Sato would arrive petitioning for assistance, and that an ultimatum would arrive from Iwagakure no Sato threatening them not to get involved. And of course, none of this could possibly have happened at a more inopportune time, what with the unrest taking place in their own country at present.

Trying her best to ignore the feeling, Taki yawned and stretched her arms over her head – an action which put a great deal of strain on the fabric covering her chest. When she relaxed again, she almost missed something on the edge of the horizon, and in fact ended up doing a double-take. But what she had seen was really there: a glint of metal amongst the miles of green. She watched it for a few minutes, only to discover that it was soon joined by a dozen more.

Instinctively she began reaching for the pair of tanto knives she wore – one horizontally across her lower back to be drawn with her left hand, and one diagonally between her shoulder blades to be drawn by her right. She stopped before reaching them, seeing that the several glints had joined together in a line of black that appeared on top of the field of green. She knew instantly what that meant: her village was under attack.

She drew a kunai from her pouch, and attached a red tag for "imminent danger". Taking the absolute minimum amount of time necessary to aim, she hurled it into the village where it struck one of the many messenger poles erected for just that purpose. It would draw the attention of everyone near, so that when her second kunai was thrown the message would be picked up immediately.

It only took her a matter of seconds to scribble out the details of her alert, but even that felt like an eternity to her in the face of what was coming. She flung her message into the village, and for the next several minutes she watched the black line of invaders draw closer while she waited anxiously for her instructions.

When those instructions came in the form of a small crossbow bolt, she was not particularly surprised. All sentries would retreat behind the village walls while Taki herself was to get as close as she could to the approaching enemies and ascertain to the best of her ability their numbers and strength. With her speed and current position, she was easily the best person for the job.

Slightly calmer now that she had an objective, Taki leapt from her perch and landed nimbly and silently on the grassy field beneath, immediately setting into a run toward the attackers. She kept low as she ran – almost horizontal – so the knee-level grass would obscure her approach. She didn't know if the enemy had any shinobi in their ranks or not, so she assumed they did.

When she was close enough to hear the thunderous sound of thousands of marching feet, she slowed her approach and began to stalk. She was at a severe disadvantage as there were no trees or anything at all she could use as a vantage point on the eastern side of the village. She wryly reflected that this was probably why the enemy chose to approach from that direction. Against shinobi invaders this type of terrain was ideal, with no brush or woodland for enemies to hide in, but with a massive attack like this – something a ninja village almost never had to deal with, a forested assault path would not be feasible.

She began working her way north so as to flank the enemy army. Since she could not get a good look at them, she would have to pace off their perimeter to determine their numbers. With any luck, she would be able to discover any shinobi in their ranks at the same time. The most difficult part of this plan would be to carry it all out and report back to the village in time for it to make a difference. There would still be lookouts on the wall of course, but with the sentry posts abandoned their range of visibility would be greatly diminished.

She reached into her pack and pulled out a handful of tiny, poison-tipped barbs. She made quick work of sprinkling them in the army's path before moving into her final position just north of where they would pass. There she waited, silent as the dead, as dozens upon dozens of rows of soldiers marched past her, not three feet away, dressed in the colors of the daimyo of Kusa no Kuni.

'_Ungrateful bastard,'_ Taki spat in her mind. She and all other jounin of the Grass knew that the new daimyo was not fond of shinobi, and didn't think he should have to rely on them, but none of them had ever expected things to go this far.

As the rear ranks strode past, she heard the telltale surprised yelps of pain that indicated the front line had reached her barbs. It was only scratching the surface, but those soldiers, at least, would not live to see her home attacked. It was a fast-acting poison that any trainee medical ninja could nullify even faster, but it was more than effective against non-shinobi (or even just non-medical) targets.

As soon as the last man had marched past her, she darted off at full speed toward the southern end of the army, keeping as low as she could. The soldiers were concentrating on what was ahead of them and so did not notice her at all, and any noise she may have made by mistake was easily covered by thousands of stomping feet.

Her strongest desire at present was to pull out a kunai and sever the Achilles tendon of every man she ran past, but intellectually she knew that this would alert them to her presence and that even if they couldn't catch her, her true mission would be compromised. The barbs had not been a problem because they are exactly the sort of trap that could be expected outside a shinobi village on a frontier with no natural cover.

The army seemed to stretch on forever, but she kept careful count of how many strides she'd taken, which could be multiplied by the number of men per stride to determine the army's size. When she reached the end of the south flank, she quickly did the math in her head and had to stifle a gasp. The daimyo had assembled roughly twelve-thousand men for this assault. Such an army hadn't been seen anywhere on the continent since before the founding of the shinobi villages, when ninja were still scarce and soldiers and samurai had still been the primary military force.

Facing her now was the task of getting back to the village and relaying this information without being detected. She bolted southwest, putting some distance between herself and the invaders before turning and making a beeline for the village wall. She'd made it halfway there when a small flurry of shuriken whirred past her head and stuck in the ground in front of her. If she hadn't heard them at the last second and slowed her step they would have made a direct hit.

She whirled around and came face to face with a man wearing a _hitai-ate_ from the Village Hidden in the Thorns. He was twirling a kunai in his right hand and sported a smug grin on his face.

"That trick you pulled with the barbs was pretty stupid," he said. "You only managed to poison about twenty men, and it gave you away. If it was a standard trap to deter intruders, there would have been more than just one patch of them."

Taki offered him a smile of her own, and a response dripping with false sweetness. "You're right," she said. "But no ordinary soldier or samurai would think of something like that. Only a shinobi would notice it."

The man seemed to realize his mistake right away, because his grin vanished and was replaced by a scowl.

"You really are crafty, aren't you?" he said. "But you won't live long enough to report back anything you've learned." He readied his kunai and dashed toward her. Taki calmly moved her hands to the hilts of the two tanto resting on her back. The pressure to return in time was still there, but she had a feeling this wouldn't take long.

-

"We're nearly there," Shino said. Kiba stopped in the tree he'd just landed in and waited to see what his teammate – his commander – would say. "What do you see, Hinata?"

She took a moment to activate her _Byakkugan_, and then suddenly gasped in apparent alarm.

"What is it, Hinata?" Kiba asked anxiously.

"There…there is a large army advancing on Kusagakure no Sato from the far side," she said, sounding almost as if she was having trouble believing it herself. "Their numbers are too great for me to estimate."

"Army?" Kiba asked. "Not an army of shinobi, right?"

Hinata shook her head. "No, they are not shinobi, though there are a small number of ninja accompanying them. They are mostly traditional foot soldiers, and some samurai."

"Foot soldiers and samurai?" Kiba said, incredulous. "Who uses them anymore except for small security details?"

"They are bearing the colors of Kusa no Kuni's daimyo," Hinata informed them.

"So the daimyo has declared war on his country's own ninja village," Shino mused.

"Does he really think he can take on a ninja village with an army like that?" Kiba remarked.

"I believe the Grass ninja are in grave danger," Hinata said, releasing her _doujutsu_ at last.

"Are you serious?" Kiba couldn't believe it. Foot soldiers and samurai against an entire village of ninja? It just didn't make sense. However, Hinata nodded gravely once again.

"The size of this army is large enough to take on even a shinobi village as strong as the Grass. Even if they are successful in repelling the invasion, they will be severely weakened."

"How is this army even going to launch their attack?" Kiba asked. "Sure, the forests around here are a lot smaller than in the Fire Country, and there's more open ground, but maneuvering that many people through would take a lot of time and organization, and it would give the Grass ninja the defensive advantage."

"You're right, Kiba-kun," Hinata said, "but the entire area to the east of the village is nothing but open grassland."

Kiba's eyes bugged out while Shino nodded sagely. "Ideal for defense against ninja attacks, but the worst case scenario for a situation like this," the bug-user said. "No ninja village would ever consider this possibility as a viable threat and therefore would not plan for it effectively."

"So what do we do?" Kiba asked. "We can hardly ask them to fight a war with us if they're already fighting one of their own."

"Our mission is to secure the Hidden Grass Village as our ally," Shino said. "The surest way to do that is to demonstrate that we are theirs. We will aid them."

"Are you _nuts_?" Kiba practically shouted. "If this army's as big as Hinata says it is, what good are the three of us going to do?"

"We will be more useful than no assistance at all," was the leader's retort. "And besides, the Hidden Grass is of no use to Konoha if it is wiped out. We will do all we can to accomplish our mission."

"Un," came Hinata's firm agreement. There was nothing Kiba could do. He would never be able to talk them out of it, and he'd sooner be eaten alive by a cat than let his teammates go in to a battle without him.

"Fine," he grunted. "But let's hurry up and get there before the army does." He made to move out, but Shino held his arm.

"We should move around to the east and approach them from the open," Shino said. "That way they will see that we are coming to help them, and will not misinterpret us as a sneak attack from the rear."

"Not a bad idea," Kiba conceded. "And we might get a glimpse of this army, too." Shino nodded.

The trip around the village did not take long, and a few minutes after they started heading northeast they noticed that the trees and shrubs were becoming thinner and thinner until they eventually disappeared completely. Upon reaching this point, Shino declared it would be safe to approach the village directly.

They were downwind of the invading forces, and as they made their approach Kiba could smell exactly what was coming, and it made his skin crawl.

"You weren't kidding, Hinata," he said. "That army is massive. The only scent in the air is a mass of sweat and metal."

"We should hurry," Shino said, and they picked up the pace to a swift trot. Any slower and they wouldn't make it in time, any faster and they would be perceived as aggressors. The village wall and the guards on top of it were in sight when Hinata yelled out, "Stop!"

"What is it, Hinata?" Kiba asked anxiously. He turned to look at her and saw that her _Byakkugan _had again been activated.

"The enemy commander has sent an advance force forward," she informed them. "We are now directly in its path."

"_Kuso_," growled Kiba. His teammate, as always remained impassive.

"They will overtake us if we do not run," he said. "And if we run, the village's defenders will see us as aggressors." He'd started walking again. "We must veer to the side and get as close to the village's wall as we can. Then we will have the defenses on our side when it is time to fight."

"Right!"

"Un!"

They dashed off slightly to the left at a much quicker pace than before, making sure to remain obviously visible. Any attempt at stealth would paint them as hostile, which they absolutely could not afford.

"They're coming!" Hinata yelled. Kiba looked back. The commander of the vanguard had evidently ordered a full charge, for hundreds of men were now bearing down upon them. He didn't have time to react though, because as soon as he turned to face forward again, arrows and kunai began raining down from above. The guards on the wall had begun their defense.

"Now we fight," Shino announced. He disappeared in a flurry of insects, and Kiba gave a whoop of exhilaration. This whole situation didn't sit right with him, but at least when he was fighting he was in control of the situation.

"Come on, Akamaru!" he howled. "Let's show these nobodies what it's like to fight shinobi!" His battle partner barked back in agreement, and the two of them leapt into the fray. It was effortless. He moved from one soldier to the next, cutting them down as if they were nothing more than practice dummies. Their movements to strike him were clumsy and slow, and as easily avoided as a leaf falling from a tree. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Hinata doing the same, and the way she flowed from one opponent to the next in a graceful performance of her family's _juuken_ style looked more like a dance than the highly efficient killing technique it truly was. He was so caught up in watching her, and the way her hair twirled about her head as she moved, that he almost forgot what he was doing until he felt something nick his right ear.

He spun and instantly rammed his fingers through the neck of the soldier whose spear had drawn his blood, and chided himself for growing complacent.

'_Don't get overconfident,'_ he scolded in his mind. _'Just because my enemy is unskilled doesn't mean I'm not in a fight to the death. What's that thing Shino always says? "Even if my enemy is the smallest insect I will not underestimate it." Man, he'd never let me hear the end of it if I managed to get skewered by one of these weaklings.'_

He threw himself back into the fight with gusto, and after a few minutes he began to see the real danger inherent in the situation.

'_There's just no end to these guys!' _He realized with sudden alarm that it was entirely possible that he would tire out before the enemies stopped coming, and he now understood what Hinata had meant when she said that an army of this magnitude could even take on an entire shinobi village.

"Akamaru!" he called out to his partner. "We need to pull out all the stops! These guys aren't shinobi; if they get scared, they'll either run away or freeze in their tracks. You know what to do."

Akamaru barked loudly and bounded over to him. Kiba leapt up onto the dog's back and performed the seals for technique that – if it didn't frighten the entire army away at once – would cut them down like a scythe in a field of grain.

_Gijuu Ninpou Juujin Henge: Soutourou! _A cloud of smoke billowed, and when it cleared, an enormous wolfish beast stood amongst the now-petrified soldiers, drooling through foot-long glistening fangs and glaring menacingly with its two giant heads.

Kiba and Akamaru wasted absolutely no time. With a swipe of their left paw they cut a swath through the troops surrounding them, and then, making sure to orient themselves correctly so they would not inadvertently harm one of their teammates in a blind assault, initiated their ultimate physical combat move.

_Garouga!_

Soldiers' bodies were sent flying in all directions, and the ones who managed to avoid the attack could do little more than scream in terror. When the rotation was over, Kiba and Akamaru repositioned themselves and attacked again. Then a third time. And a fourth. But there were still men left standing, and the two of them had nearly exhausted themselves.

They let out a tremendous growl that almost sounded like a roar and padded their way quickly over to Shino and Hinata, who were still fighting. When they arrived, they were forced to release the transformation.

"They just keep coming!" Kiba said, fending off a spear thrust at his throat. "I thought for sure that technique would scare them away!"

"It nearly did," Shino told him. "But they have neither the time to run away, nor a place to run to."

"We can't keep fighting them forever," Kiba panted.

"No, we cannot."

"The main force has begun marching again," Hinata announced, even while she moved from opponent to opponent, striking them down seemingly without effort, but she her hair was no longer flowing about her head; it was weighed down with sweat, and her breathing was harder. Kiba could tell she was just as tired as he was.

"How soon will they be here, Hinata?" he asked, taking up a position at her back so they could defend one another.

"A matter of minutes," was her reply. The rain of arrows and kunai was still falling from atop the village wall, but it seemed a paltry, almost token assistance at this point.

"We need to make it into the village," Shino said. "It is our only hope at this point."

"What if they don't let us in?" Kiba asked. His mind was racing, trying to think of something – anything – to get them out of this situation safely. He wasn't looking forward to dying, and he didn't really want to see Shino killed either, but it was Akamaru and Hinata he was most concerned about. He would do anything to get them to safety, even if it meant sacrificing himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't even think of a way to make that work.

"There is no other choice," Shino said. "We will have to risk it. We have helped to defend them against attack, they should at the very least provide us sanctuary in return for that, even if they don't trust us. Once we are safely inside we can concern ourselves with proving our positive intentions."

"We might as well; I can't think of anything better." And so they refocused their efforts on making a beeline for the village gate, only fending off an enemy when it was absolutely necessary. When the outer ranks were in sight, an something encouraging happened: the gate began to open. But nothing could have prepared them for what came next.

A bug – a grasshopper, by the looks of it – the size of an elephant came shooting out from behind the gate as if it were launched from a cannon, or a spring-loaded catapult. On its back was a man with scraggly grey hair and a manic expression on his face. The giant insect landed in the middle of the troops, trampling several of them, and sending up a huge plume of dirt and dust. It immediately leapt up again, at speeds which should have been unattainable for something so large.

Twice more this repeated in a matter of seconds, and then a thunderous cry was emitted from the man. It was a sort of whooping battle cry, much like the kind Kiba frequently made himself. The man unfurled what appeared to be an exceptionally long whip from somewhere on his clothing and began twirling it around, striking multiple enemies with each strike. All the while his mount continued bouncing all over the battlefield like an overlarge flea, and it was a good bit of time before Kiba realized he'd been standing transfixed, observing this, without being attacked once.

His teammates seemed to realize this at the same time as he, because a moment later Hinata said, "The enemies' attention is all on him! What do we do?"

Kiba didn't need asking twice. "We make a break for it!" And so they did, and they had almost reached their goal when the enemy troops remembered they were there and moved to bar their path. They prepared to fight their way through once again when the men in their way suddenly keeled over, great long gashes emitting copious amounts of blood present on various parts of their bodies. The three Konoha nin looked back and saw that the man on the grasshopper had finished what they had not been able to and wiped out the remainder of the advance forces. He was now making his way over to them, which took only one hop and a shuddering impact a few feet from their faces.

"Leaf ninja, are you?" he inquired in a gruff but not necessarily hostile voice. "What in the hell are you doing out here?"

Kiba opened his mouth to answer (forgetting entirely that it was Shino's job to do so) when the man help up his hand hastily.

"Never mind, I don't want to know," he said. "Not my bloody business anyway. But you should get your asses inside quick. This lot was just the warm-up. The real show's coming soon, and by the looks of you a good bit of rest is in order before you have to deal with that. Just go up to the gate. They'll let you in – or they'll have me to deal with."

"Thank you very much," Hinata said to the man, bowing. "But, if you don't mind my asking, you didn't tell us your name."

"So I didn't!" he replied, almost as if he were amused. "Sharp one, you are. I'm Kuwabatake Sanjuro, of the Hidden Grass. Don't bother telling me your names; if you survive, I'm sure I'll find out later."

"Kuwabatake Sanjuro…" Shino repeated. "I know that name. You are listed in the Bingo Book as a shinobi of legendary skill from the Hidden Grass Village who has declared himself independent, but still live in your home village."

"What? How can you be independent and still live here?" Kiba asked.

"Easy, kid," Sanjuro grinned. "I live here because I love my home and would never want to live anywhere else. I'm independent because none of the village leaders are fool enough to try to tell me what to do."

This man was very reminiscent of the Toad Hermit, Jiraiya, Kiba thought. A little younger perhaps, but his appearance, his clothing and even his mannerisms were very similar. He mentioned as much, and it caused the old Grass nin to burst into hysterical laughter.

"That old pervert? Oh, boy, kid. Thanks for the compliment," he said with a wide grin once his laughter had died down. "If I were to be completely honest, though, I don't think I'm quite in the same class as him. As a shinobi either, come to think of it." Kiba didn't quite know how to respond to that, so he settled for chuckling awkwardly. Hinata appeared to be in the same boat, but Shino of course was as stoic as ever.

"The Bingo Book also states that in the past he has been instrumental to saving the Grass Village on three separate occasions. Among enemy and ally alike, he is known as _Kusagakure no_ _Kichigai Semi_."

"'The Mad Cicada'?" Kiba blurted out incredulously. What kind of nickname was that?

Kuwabatake himself reacted strongly to the moniker as well, though not in as benign a fashion. His grinning face morphed into an angry scowl, and the look in his eyes was radiating murderous intent.

"Why do people insist on calling me that?" he demanded furiously. "It doesn't make any sense! I don't summon cicadas! I summon grasshoppers! Locusts!" He balled up his fists. "I swear, the next time I hear that name I'm going to kill whoever says it, and whoever else is around at the time."

Kiba, Hinata, and even Shino were all taken aback by this completely unexpected behavior. Kiba attempted to placate the man.

"Uh…sorry. We didn't mean to offend you or anything. We just…" he trailed off as his words were having no effect. He was about to signal to the others that it was time to bolt when Sanjuro's face broke into another manic grin.

"I'm just kidding you, kid. I don't really care." He punctuated this statement by laughing uproariously once more.

"I can see where the 'mad' part comes from, anyway," Kiba muttered. Hinata giggled behind her hands.

"Well, that's enough traumatizing the younger generation for one day," the older man announced abruptly. "What are you still doing here, anyway? Didn't I tell you to get inside the walls?"

"Ah…right," Kiba said. "Let's go, guys." They turned and headed into the village. The young woman who dropped down and addressed the Mad Cicada a moment later did not escape their notice, however. And Kiba's ears could hear every word she said.

"Sensei!" she gasped. "What are you doing out here?"

"Well, the Leaf ninja who were fighting our battle for us couldn't handle it on their own, and the sentries on duty didn't seem too inclined to help them," Kuwabatake said contemptuously. "I figured someone should."

"Leaf ninja?" the woman asked. "What…"

"Never mind that, what did you find out?"

"Oh! Well, the daimyo's army is approximately twelve thousand strong. Perhaps a bit smaller now. They are well equipped, and there are several hundred samurai among them."

"Samurai? Interesting. I didn't think they were used as anything more than cheap hired goons or ceremonial guards anymore."

"Neither did I."

"Well, they aren't ninja, but they're definitely more dangerous than an average soldier. Anything else?"

"Yes, Sensei." The woman's voice dropped significantly and Kiba had to strain to hear her. Even then he could barely make out what she was saying. "On my return, I encountered…shinobi. He…chuunin level at best, but he implied…of them."

"This is definitely a problem," Kuwabatake said gravely. "We need to speak with the defensive coordinators immediately." The two of them disappeared, apparently leaving Team Kurenai to its own devices.

"We were told by Kuwabatake Sanjuro that we would be allowed entry to the village," Shino told the guard at the still-open gate.

"Yes, yes, I know. Hurry up and go in so we can close the gate. Someone will be along to meet with you shortly. I suggest you wait for them over there." He pointed to a bench to the side of the main path a short walk away. They did as they were told, and as soon as the guard wasn't paying attention to them anymore, Shino spoke up.

"What did they talk about, Kiba?"

"There's almost twelve thousand troops out there," he said as casually as he could so they wouldn't attract any attention. "A couple hundred samurai, and…" this was the part that worried him the most, "an unknown number of ninja."

"Ninja?" Hinata gasped.

"From what village?" Shino asked.

"I couldn't hear. I think she figured out I was listening, or at least she suspected it, because she was whispering all through that part."

"Perhaps she believes we will be less inclined to stay and help if we are aware the enemy has shinobi in their ranks," Shino postulated.

"Well there's not much we can do about it either way," Kiba said. "Like you said before, we're here to convince them to be our allies, right? We can't do that if we leave. We've gone this far, we might as well finish the mission."

Their conversation was cut short as a Grass ninja appeared in front of them, motioning for them to follow him.

"I'm sorry the three of you have been caught up in this," he said. "I've been asked to inform you that you have our deepest gratitude, and that if you want to escape, they haven't made it to the western side of the village yet. It would be easy to slip away through the forest."

"Thank you for the information," Shino said. "But my teammates and I were just talking about staying here for a while."

- - -

My most profuse apologies for the delay, but I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem lately. And by "a lot", I mean that if I haven't been eating, sleeping or working, I've pretty much been playing Fire Emblem. I beat it a couple of weeks ago, and in between working on graduate school applications and the like, I've been writing this. I did some work on the next chapter simultaneously with this one, so hopefully that one won't take as long.

Many thanks again go to my prereaders SJR and HitokiriOTD. OTD informed me that my Hinata was sounding too much like Belldandy, and I hope I managed to pull her back a little. Hinata is the hardest canon character for me to write by far, and I hope I get better at her because she has many more appearances scheduled.

So what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Think it's okay? Leave a review and let me know. And if you don't leave one but add it to your favorites, I will have my agents track you down and they will kill your dog. That's right. I have agents. And they hate dogs.

As usual, translations follow:

Kusagakure no Sato – Hidden Grass Village. Duh.

Kusa no Kuni – Grass Country

Sorahana – literally, the kanji for Taki's surname would translate to "sky flower". The kanji for her given name would be "waterfall". Just in case you were wondering.

Doujutsu – eye technique (it's in the manga, so you should know this one)

Gijuu Ninpou Juujin Henge: Soutourou – Beast mimicry man-beast transformation: Two-headed wolf (also in the manga, but it's a mouthful)


	5. Episode IV: Amegakure

Moving right along, I have here for your consideration Episode IV, which is a splendid episode with some lovely acting. I do hope that all of your dogs are alive and well, and that we may continue enjoying this story together in harmony. For you Shikamaru fans out there, this chapter is presumably what you've been waiting for. And now without further ado:

- - -

SHINOBI WARS: Episode IV – Amagakure

Chouji was packing his things with a mixture of anxiety and excitement. When Shikamaru had come to tell him that the three of them – good old Team 10 – would be going on a mission to the Country of Rain, his reaction had been one of sheer joy. In the years since his hospitalization, his missions had been few and far between, and he'd only gone on two outside the village since becoming a chuunin. Not that he didn't enjoy teaching at the academy, but the life of a ninja was supposed to be one of danger and adventure, and he would often feel left out when his friends went off to face death while he remained behind instructing the next generation in proper kunai maintenance. Who needed to maintain a kunai anyway? Once you throw them, they're gone. Buy new ones.

Now that it was about time to leave, his enthusiasm was tempered with the knowledge that he _had_ only been on two missions as a chuunin, and this particular mission had the potential to be a very dangerous one. It was B-rank, and while he'd done those before, this would be his first without Asuma.

"This is ridiculous!" he said out loud to himself as he closed up his pack after ensuring that everything he would need was in there. "I can't rely on Asuma-sensei my whole life. Things will be fine. The three of us have gotten ourselves out of all sorts of trouble before." His thoughts drifted back to their very first chuunin exam – the one Shikamaru ended up passing – and how through some remnant of devotion on Ino's part the three of them had found themselves facing a team of dangerous Sound genin who were beating up Sakura. He certainly hadn't volunteered for that one. But they managed to get out of it essentially unharmed.

Then there was the mission to retrieve Sasuke – the one that left him practically crippled and struggling to regain his strength for the next three years. Ino hadn't been there then, and that was probably for the best. She might not have survived it. But Shikamaru was there, like always, and even though things kept turning against them, he brought them all back alive.

Another time Team 10 had been assigned a C-rank escort mission to the Country of Tea. It was one of the few missions he actually participated in during his long recovery, and it was noteworthy in that Asuma had not gone with them. Shikamaru had been their leader that time, and their client had been ambushed by a three-man squad from the Smoke. Against all odds, the Ino-Shika-Chou trio had prevailed, and though he'd been completely exhausted for the remainder of the mission, it had ended as a success.

"Chouji!" came a familiar cry from outside, accompanied by a loud knocking on his door.

"I'll be right there, Shikamaru!" he called, and slung the pack over his shoulder. He tied his kunai holster around his leg and made sure to put some extra food pills in his pocket, just in case.

'_Yeah,'_ he thought, heading for the door. _'With Shikamaru and Ino and me together, there isn't anyone who can bring us down.'_

"How's it going?" his oldest friend asked as he stepped outside and they started walking toward Ino's house to pick her up as well.

"Great," Chouji answered, sporting his trademark grin. "I'm looking forward to having a mission. It's been a while."

"You sound like Naruto," Shikamaru droned, though he was smiling a little bit. "I'll never understand what the big deal is about more work. Especially work that puts your life on the line. The fewer missions I got, the happier I'd be."

"Yeah, but you're too good at them, Shikamaru," Chouji said. "Hokage-sama would never let you slack off no matter how much you wanted to."

"I know. She even tricked me into becoming a jounin. Now I get even more dangerous missions than before," he complained. "The whole thing is just a pain in the ass."

"At least you get paid more now," Chouji offered. "You'll be able to afford a house on your family's plot and move out of your parents' place like you've always talked about."

"That is one bright side, I guess," Shikamaru conceded. "Mom's been on my case about it, though. She doesn't want me to move out yet even though a lot of shinobi our age live on their own."

"My mom doesn't want me to move out, either," Chouji said. "Of course if I did, I'd only be able to afford an apartment in the middle of the village, so I don't really want to anyway."

"You'd just miss her cooking," Shikamaru joked.

Chouji laughed. "You're right, I would."

"She'd probably let you come by and eat whenever you wanted."

"My dad did that until he met my mom," Chouji said, chuckling at his father's expense. "He didn't want her to think he was a mama's boy or something, so from when they started dating to when they got married he cooked for himself. He lost thirty-seven pounds."

Both boys laughed heartily, and then Chouji continued on with what they'd been discussing.

"Wasn't Ino saying something about getting her own place?" Chouji asked.

"She was talking about it, yeah," Shikamaru replied, though to Chouji he didn't seem particularly interested one way or the other. "But just like you, it would be an apartment. I don't think Ino could handle living in an apartment, really."

"Oh, I don't know," Chouji said. "I don't think it would bother her too much. And she's always talking about how she wants to be independent from her parents."

Shikamaru scoffed. "She's a kunoichi. If she were any more independent her parents may as well not exist. No, she wants to live alone so they don't know what she's doing all the time."

"What would she be doing that she doesn't want her parents to know about?" Chouji wondered aloud.

"Beats me," Shikamaru said. "That's not the kind of thing she would talk to me about."

"I guess we'll never know, then," Chouji said. "If she won't tell you, she won't tell anyone. Except maybe Sakura, and she wouldn't tell us either."

"That's where you're wrong," Shikamaru smirked. "Sakura would tell Naruto, and Naruto would tell us the moment she was out of earshot."

"I guess you're right," Chouji said, smiling.

"In any case, who cares?" Shikamaru went on. "We're talking about a completely hypothetical situation here anyway. And what Ino wants to do on her own is her business."

"I'm glad you feel that way," said a cheerful voice they both recognized instantly. They had arrived at Ino's house to find her standing out front waiting for them, and judging by the frighteningly broad smile on her face she had clearly heard the end of their conversation, and an unknown amount preceding that. Caution would be necessary before proceeding.

"Hi, Ino," Chouji greeted normally.

"And just what exactly are you two talking about?" she asked far too casually.

"Moving out," Shikamaru answered simply.

"Oh?" she perked up with interest. "Is one of you moving out? And just how do I fit into this?"

"Neither of us is moving; we were just talking about it," Shikamaru said. "And you came up because you've been talking about it too."

Ino seemed to deflate. "Well that's disappointing," she said, crossing her arms and pouting. "Here I was hoping for some juicy gossip to get our mission started on the right note. You guys never do anything worth talking about."

"That's the plan," Shikamaru said. "Now let's get moving; we should've been out of here already. I'll explain the mission as we walk."

"You're so grumpy," Ino teased, nudging the boy with her hip as she fell into step on the other side of him from Chouji. Shikamaru spared her an exasperated glance before moving on to describe their mission.

"Envoys are being sent out in the form of three-man squads to all the hidden villages that are either allied or friendly toward us, or neutral and not allied to our enemies. The objective is to obtain aid from as many of these villages as possible, or at the very least convince them to remain out of the conflict altogether if they don't want to help us. This is considered a B-rank mission because of the likelihood of attack along the way, and the possibility that any or all of our enemies may be sending out envoys as well."

"Sounds simple enough," Ino said. "But what aren't you telling us? Which village are we going to?"

"Our team has been assigned the village of Amegakure," Shikamaru said. Chouji didn't really know if that was good or bad, but Shikamaru continued before he could ask. "That happens to be the most difficult assignment by a large margin for a number of reasons. First, while the Rain is allied with both the Leaf and the Sand, they are also allied with the Mist and the Cloud. They could conceivably take either side, and there is no evidence to suggest a higher chance of them choosing our side.

"Second, the Country of Rain as a whole is very secretive and isolationistic. Just getting inside its borders will be difficult, much less moving around and finding the Hidden Rain Village once we're there. All outsiders need to declare themselves and their purpose at the border, and are followed everywhere they go. While we could easily avoid any non-shinobi tails, it wouldn't look good and we should try to avoid suspicion.

"Third, and maybe most troublesome of all, the little intelligence we do have from inside the Rain Country says that they are currently involved in a civil war. This may include the Hidden Village and it may not, but either way it will be difficult to acquire aid from people whose country is in turmoil. What's more, if the ninja are involved in the conflict, we risk ingratiating ourselves to one side and thus alienating the other. This will prove disastrous if we pick the wrong side. There's also the simple possibility that we may get caught up in the conflict ourselves just by being there. Any questions?"

"Just one," said Ino. "_How_ exactly did we get saddled with this mission?"

Shikamaru sighed. "The Hokage thinks we're the best team to handle it. She says that between my strategic abilities, your talents in reconnaissance and Chouji's brute strength, we'll have everything we need to at least survive this mission." He briefly rubbed the bridge of his nose in a gesture Chouji had come to associate with aggravation. "The way I smoothed things over with the Snow a few months ago probably had something to do with it, too. I think she's hoping I can manage to do that again."

"I always said you were too smart for your own good," Ino joked. "Look what it's gotten us into now."

"If there is a civil war, how will we know which side to approach?" Chouji interjected, hoping to stave off what could easily turn into an argument.

"If it turns out that the Hidden Village itself is divided, we'll most likely not be successful in gaining the support of either side," Shikamaru replied. "They would be too focused on their own circumstances and wouldn't be able to afford diverting any attention to matters that don't directly affect them. Nevertheless, we can't simply abandon the mission. If we discover such a situation, we would have to perform some surveillance on both sides first and decide how to proceed from there."

"Sounds easy enough," Ino said cheerfully. Shikamaru just rolled his eyes. Chouji couldn't help but laugh. This was just how he remembered it.

-

The going had been good. A day and a half after they set out, Shikamaru informed them that they were nearing the edge of the Rain Country.

"Remember, they require everyone to declare themselves on arrival, along with their purpose and intended duration of stay. After that they will assign someone to follow us the entire time we are within their borders."

"That's going to make things difficult," Ino said. "Isn't there some way around that?"

"We could rely on stealth and just trust our ability to get in safely," Shikamaru said. "But that's taking a risk. If we're spotted, it would lower our chances of success to zero."

Ino knew better than to think that was all he had, so she waited. Sure enough, he kept going.

"We could take out the guards, but the risks and possible results would be the same. Our best option is to cross the border under false pretenses and then work to lose the government agents pursuing us."

"Sounds good," Chouji said. "What should our story be?"

Shikamaru was just about to answer when a thought occurred to Ino.

"Wait a minute," she said. "What if we could get in without doing any of that? We could get in without having to sneak past the border guards or do anything, and once we're inside we wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing us because there would be no way for them to know we weren't supposed to be there."

Shikamaru and Chouji looked at her strangely, and there was a long period of silence. There was a moment she thought they were going to shoot her idea down when she felt extremely self-conscious, but then Shikamaru grinned.

"Okay, I'll bite," he said. "What did you have in mind?"

Several minutes later found Ino scurrying along the ground in the body of a rat while Shikamaru and Chouji watched over her body in a secure location. The Country of Rain was able to maintain its isolationist policies because of many natural barriers such as wide canyons or steep cliffs that even shinobi found very difficult to traverse. Where there was nothing natural, a manmade wall had been erected. While it was still possible for the three of them to circumvent these obstacles, it was a great deal of trouble and Shikamaru considered the risk of being spotted unacceptable. The walls would be much easier than the natural barriers of course, but to reach one would take them days out of their way, which he also considered unacceptable. That left one of the designated entrance points, which Ino was currently on her way to investigate.

Creeping forward while remaining as hidden as possible, she approached the guard station at the border crossing. She could hear two men conversing.

"I'm telling you, those guys were ninja," one of them said. "It was so obvious."

"What?" asked the other man. "How was it obvious?"

"Because they didn't have any reason to be here," the first one said. "'Just passing through'? Nobody 'just passes through' the Rain country. They're here for something they don't want us to know about."

"If you're so great at figuring this stuff out," the second man jeered, "why don't you go to Amegakure and sign up to be a ninja yourself?"

"Don't be an idiot," the first man snapped. "You can't just waltz up to a ninja village and ask for an application. Besides, they scare the crap out of me."

"You didn't seem too scared of those guys who just went through, considering you're so convinced they were ninja."

"No, not any ninja. _Our_ ninja. Rain ninja. There's something weird about them, and I can't quite put my finger on it."

"Whatever," said the second man, clearly indifferent. "Let's just say you're right, and those guys were ninja. What are we going to do about it?"

"There's not much we can do except file a report," the first man said. "I mean, they'll lose any tail that's set on them anyway, so we should let the government know they're here. That way, even if they do something, no one will be able to blame us for it."

Through this conversation, Ino had crawled right into the guard station and determined that there were only the two men present.

'_Perfect,'_ she thought to herself. She would now be able to carry out her plan, and if it worked the three of them would be able to enter the Rain Country without anyone ever knowing about it.

-

"Are you sure this is going to work, Ino?" Chouji asked for what felt like the tenth time as they crept toward the guard station she'd investigated.

"For the last time, yes, I'm sure," she replied irritably. "Just be sure not to drop me when you carry me through."

"There are a couple of things that could go wrong, you know," Shikamaru warned her. He liked the plan, and was quite honestly impressed by it, but it was his nature to always have a back-up, and a back-up for that, too. He'd been working on those ever since Ino shared her idea with him, and he thought he was about there. Things should hopefully go well. But that didn't mean she should expect them to.

"I know that," she said. "And I have a back-up plan, and I know you do too so stop worrying about it."

"Who said I was worried?" he asked. This remark appeared to please her, but a second later she shushed them all because they were within striking distance.

"I can get one of them from here," she said. "Remember, as soon as they're distracted make a break for it. If they don't see us going in, they can't assign a tail to us. And they won't report our presence, so once we're inside we can blend in to the population and we'll be invisible to the government."

"Make sure whatever you do in there is innocuous," Shikamaru reminded her. "We can't make it look like a fight or anything suspicious happened or they'll investigate."

"Right," Ino said. She crouched down and formed her hand seal, and then waited for a target. Several tense seconds later, she had an opportunity.

_Shintenshin no jutsu!_ The brief pause the man made shortly thereafter was enough to tell Shikamaru that the technique was successful. He turned to Chouji and nodded, and the latter picked up Ino's limp form and draped her over his shoulder.

"Are you ready, Chouji?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah."

"Get ready. It looks like she's got the other guy's attention. Wait for it…go!" The two of them moved as stealthily as they could, and once past the guard station they kept moving until they hit some shrubbery they could conceal themselves in. There they waited there for a few minutes before Ino sprang back to life.

"Kuso," she spat immediately, and began stalking quickly back toward the guards.

"What is it?" Shikamaru whispered, following her. He instructed Chouji to stay behind and wait.

"Well, I hit a bit of an unexpected snag," she said. "It turns out the two of them are lovers. Needless to say, I didn't see it coming and I kind of gave myself away."

"So they know something's going on, but they don't know what," Shikamaru reasoned.

"Right. They have no idea we're here, but they know something isn't right and they're going to investigate."

"Well, like you said, there was no way you could have anticipated that," Shikamaru said in a placating tone.

"Don't even start trying to patronize me, Shikamaru," Ino scolded him. "I'm perfectly capable of fixing this, though I didn't want to resort to such a method."

"Get to it, then," he said. He watched as she crept right up to the guardhouse so she was crouched underneath a window. She performed a few hand seals and then stood straight up.

At once, both men inside turned to look at her, and she released her technique.

_Boukyaku no jutsu!_

The gaze of both men suddenly went blank, and Ino was hurtling toward him again.

"Hide!" she whispered loudly. He hurried back with her to where Chouji was waiting in the bushes.

"What was that technique?" Shikamaru asked, though he thought he could probably guess. "I've never seen you use it before."

"It's a technique for erasing a person's memories," she said. "It only goes back a couple of minutes, which is why I was in such a hurry. But it worked. The reason I didn't want to use it to begin with was because now they both have a three minute gap in their memories, which they might find suspicious. But under the circumstances, it was the best option."

"I agree," Shikamaru said. "With the initial plan compromised, the only other way to keep them from eventually discovering us would have been to kill them, which would have aroused much more suspicion, and could have jeopardized our mission as well. The risk is minimal this way, and the mission is still safe. Well done." He offered her a rare smile, which she returned enthusiastically. Ino had always been very fond of praise and as he was discovering, she was especially receptive to praise coming from him in particular.

-

Over the next few days they discovered that the rumors of the Rain Country's overbearing security were either greatly exaggerated or out of date. Either way, they barely encountered any government agents at all, and evidence of any ninja activity was noticeably lacking.

It was this second bit that had them all on edge. In a country with a hidden village – especially one as large and powerful as Amegakure – there should have been signs of shinobi habitation. Occasional marks from weapons, barely visible trails through less-traveled areas, or even something as obvious as a ninja with a Rain _hitai-ate_. They weren't expecting to be bombarded with such things, but a complete absence of anything at all wasn't right.

"When was the last time we had any contact with the Rain?" Chouji asked on their third day as they left yet another town with no helpful information at all. They knew the general whereabouts of the Hidden Rain Village, but not its exact location. Considering they couldn't outright let anyone know they were looking for it, finding it was proving to be quite a challenge even without the information deficiency.

"About four years ago, right around the time of our first chuunin exam," Shikamaru said. "Even for a village as secretive as the Rain, that's a long time to go without any contact whatsoever."

"So why did the Hokage even send us here?" Ino asked, the frustration getting the better of her. "Does she actually think there's any chance of them helping us when they won't even talk to us?"

"Not really, no," Shikamaru answered plainly. "But every avenue has to be explored. Even if we assume they won't help us, we'll never actually know unless we ask. And we need help, so it's worth the risk involved."

"Right, right, I know," Ino said. "But this is ridiculous! We don't even know where they are! We've been in this country for three days and we haven't even seen so much as a trace of an Ame-nin. We haven't even met anyone _else_ who's seen a trace of an Ame-nin. It's like they just dropped off the face of the earth."

"That very well may be," Shikamaru said. "It's possible that the Rain village has been destroyed – by one of their enemies or by…" he cut himself off abruptly. The information he had been given regarding the tailed beasts was classified, and he wasn't supposed to be blurting it out to his teammates – or anyone else for that matter. To say he had been shocked to learn that the Kyuubi no Kitsune was only one of nine such monsters would not be entirely accurate. It made sense that if one such creature could exist, then others could as well. But to have it confirmed, and to find out that some of them were even contained inside human beings (like the Kazekage!), did come as a bit of a surprise. Had one of these legendary creatures destroyed the Hidden Rain? Was the village really gone? It was too much uncertainty in an already uncertain mission, and his head was beginning to ache trying to process it all.

"Or by what, Shikamaru?" Chouji prompted when he didn't continue.

"Or by…something else," he finished lamely. "There was supposed to be a civil war going on here, remember? But we haven't seen any signs of that, either. Maybe it's already over and the Hidden Village was destroyed with it." It was only a cop-out to avoid saying what he'd really been thinking, but he couldn't discount it as a viable possibility.

"That doesn't seem likely unless the ninja themselves took sides and fought against each other," Ino observed.

"It would have to be pretty even numbers to wipe them all out, wouldn't it?" Chouji asked.

"Not necessarily," Shikamaru said. "We've seen in Konoha what can happen when an exceptional ninja goes rogue. Don't forget that the entire Uchiha district was wiped off the map in a single night by one man. Such things are possible."

"Wouldn't we have heard about that, though?" Ino asked. "Someone like that would definitely be in the Bingo Book, wouldn't they?"

"Not if nobody outside this country knows about it," Shikamaru answered. "Hell, from what we've seen, it's conceivable nobody _in_ this country would know about it."

"So what if we never find them?" Chouji asked.

"We will," Shikamaru said. "It's just a matter of how long it'll take. Worst-case scenario, we find the remains of an abandoned village. If that does turn out to be the case, there won't be anything we can do about it. But at least we'll know of one potential ally our enemies won't have either."

They walked on in silence for a while, each contemplating their own thoughts. Upon reconsideration, Shikamaru reasoned that an attack by something as massive and unruly as one of the tailed beasts would certainly attract attention that even the Rain Country's government would not be able to cover up. That left enemy action or internal strife. He was sure that a movement of ninja powerful enough to destroy an entire hidden village would be noticed by Konoha's intelligence network. He was now down to decay from within. But what kind? Was it a single rogue shinobi like Uchiha Itachi? Were there several of them working together? Independently? Or maybe it really was an all-out civil war.

The latter he deemed unlikely, as the winning side would have remained behind, barring the extremely improbable scenario of both sides killing each other off. It still had to be considered however, given the intelligence saying that something of that sort happened in Rain Country recently.

Also, he had not dismissed the notion that the Ame-nin's propensities for stealth far exceeded their expectations and capacity for detection. As if to drive the point home, he shifted his thoughts to more pressing concerns and shared a momentary glance with Chouji, who nodded slowly. From his right he'd already felt Ino's subtle shift in posture as she walked.

"You've noticed, Ino?" he asked, turning to her.

She favored him with a supercilious grin. "Of course." The three of them stopped abruptly, perfectly synchronized.

"You can come out," Shikamaru called casually to the presence behind them.

"You picked up on me that quickly?" asked the man who emerged from behind a rock. "I've only been following you for a minute and a half."

"Almost two minutes, actually," Shikamaru countered coolly. He turned to face the man and his teammates followed suit. He was rather unremarkable, with dress shoes and slacks worn with a shirt and tie, and a jacket emblazoned with the governmental seal of the Country of Rain. _Not a shinobi then_, Shikamaru quickly assessed. _That explains his abysmal tailing skills, at least_.

"What is it you want?" he addressed the man directly.

"What?" the man replied. "What do you mean?" He seemed baffled that they would even ask such a question, as though random strangers routinely followed them in secret along old country roads for no particular reason.

"What kind of stupid question is that?" Shikamaru asked. "Why are you following us?"

The man seemed truly taken-aback at having to explain himself, but did his best. "Well, I saw you leaving that last village, and you didn't have agents tailing you, so I figured I would…" his eyes swelled up like saucers. "…You're ninja, aren't you?" When they didn't answer, he correctly interpreted their silence as an affirmation and fell to the ground, prostrate before them. "I'm so sorry! I should have known when you picked up on me so quickly! I know we're not supposed to tail shinobi, but I didn't recognize that you were, and…"

"Shut up," Shikamaru commanded calmly, and the man did. He looked absolutely petrified. "Listen, you made a mistake; it happens. I shouldn't have expected you to know we were shinobi. If you did, it would mean we weren't doing our job. I'll let you off this once since you were only doing what you're supposed to be doing, but it's only because I'm in a good mood. Go follow someone else." He waved his hand dismissively.

"Y-yes, of course. Right away. Thank you." The man bowed no less than three times as he stammered his thanks and hurried off to complete Shikamaru's instructions. He couldn't get away from them fast enough.

"Well that was interesting," Shikamaru muttered after the man was gone.

"I'll say," Ino said, turning to him with her hands on her hips. "You wanna tell us what the hell that was about?"

"Take it easy, Ino," Chouji butted in, holding up his hands in a peaceful gesture. "I don't know what it was about either, but you know Shikamaru would never do anything reckless. Just hear him out."

"Thanks, Chouji," Shikamaru said. Ino had the grace to look slightly abashed.

"Sorry," she murmured.

"Don't worry about it," Shikamaru said. "Listen, from what we know already and from what that guy said, it seems to me that there are government agents wandering all over this place keeping tabs on people. Whenever they see someone who isn't being tailed, they latch on for a while. That way, they have information on just about everybody, even if no one's being followed one hundred percent of the time. It seems pretty haphazard, but they probably have a system set up so it works.

"Anyway, the important thing is that there are obviously rules for these agents about tracking ninja, so we now know there still are ninja in this country somewhere, even if we don't know where or how many. So that's one problem out of the way, but we still have to find them."

"Before they find us," Ino said darkly.

"I think I've got a good way around that," Shikamaru said with a smirk. He turned to his best friend. "Chouji, can you make yourself look like one of those agents?"

"No problem," the larger young man said, and pulled off a quick _henge_. He looked like a slightly thinner version of himself with some facial features borrowed from the man they'd just seen. And of course he had the fine suit and the government badge that went with it.

"Excellent," Shikamaru declared. He turned again to Ino. "Now you and I will look like nothing more than an average couple traveling from one town to another, complete with our own government tail."

-

The next several days went by with little incident, and after a full week inside the Rain Country they were pretty sure they had a fair idea where they were going. Nobody in any of the towns or villages they visited seemed to want anything to do with the Rain ninja, but their avoidance had become a guide. Shikamaru had managed to work out through the locations of civilian settlements and the things that people pointedly _didn't_ say upon questioning a rough calculation of Amegakure's location and the safest route to get there. They were in the process of following that route when Chouji made an observation that was long overdue.

"Hey guys, is the ground getting softer?" he asked when he met up with them that evening after another day of following them in disguise.

"What do you mean?" asked Ino, munching on a fish she'd caught earlier in a stream.

"Well, it's like it's getting a little soggier. And I smell rainwater."

Shikamaru's eyes popped wide open, but Ino still seemed puzzled. "What's so weird about that?" she asked. "We're in the Country of Rain, after all."

"Except it hasn't rained once since we got here," Shikamaru said gravely. "Even if we assume that's an anomaly, and that it may very well have rained the day before we arrived, the ground should be getting drier, not wetter. And there shouldn't be any lingering scent of rainwater in the air."

"So where is it coming from?" Ino continued, catching on.

"The fact that we're getting closer to Amegakure no Sato can't be a coincidence," Shikamaru determined. "Ino, find something nocturnal and go on ahead to have a look. But be careful."

"Right," she nodded, and vanished.

"What do you think she'll find?" Chouji asked.

"I don't know," Shikamaru said. "Hopefully nothing that will notice anything strange about whatever animal she inhabits. I hope she's lucky enough to find a bird."

"She will," Chouji assured him. "You know Ino, somehow or other she always ends up getting exactly what she wants."

"Mmm," was Shikamaru's only reply.

Almost an hour later, the two of them were starting to get worried. A few minutes after she'd left, Ino had indeed returned with a type of owl Shikamaru wasn't entirely familiar with and proceeded to inhabit it with her _Shintenshin no Jutsu_. She had yet to return. Chouji could tell it was torturing his friend not to know what was happening, especially since they couldn't very well go out and look for a bird in the middle of the night, even if they could leave Ino's body behind.

Just when Chouji himself was starting to lose it, Ino's eyes snapped open and she took a gasping breath.

"Ino!" they both whispered loudly in lieu of shouting. Shikamaru hurried to help her sit up.

"What happened?" the young jounin asked. "What did you see?"

"You wouldn't believe it," Ino said frenetically. "I flew ahead about a kilometer or so, and I saw rainclouds. They were pouring out rain, and the ground below them was completely saturated, like it had been raining for days. Weeks."

"What's so odd about that?" Chouji asked. "Like you said, it's the Country of Rain, after all."

"I was getting to that," Ino said, waving him off impatiently. "It wasn't the rain itself that was weird, it was how it was positioned."

"What do you mean?" asked Shikamaru. Ino shot him a look that said she would impale the next one of them to interrupt her.

"I _mean_ that this tiny little monsoon was completely localized. Like it never moved. I could tell by the way the water behaved on the ground. Anyway, I got a little closer and I saw some really tall buildings through all the rain. I veered around to see how big the town or village or whatever it was turned out to be, and I found out that the rainstorm was planted on top of it! I flew all the way around, and the entire time the rain stopped like a wall about two hundred meters beyond the edge of the village. Like it was part of it or something."

"Weird!"

"It has to be some kind of jutsu. That's definitely got to be the Hidden Rain Village."

"Will you two shut up!?" Ino exploded. "I haven't even gotten to the craziest part yet."

"Sorry," Chouji and Shikamaru both muttered.

"So anyway, I was flying around the outside of this village, yeah? Had to have been at least a half hour, probably more. Nobody noticed me or anything that whole time. I finally decided I'd brave getting wet to go have a better look at the village, and not three minutes later a couple of ninja came and started looking for me. Only they weren't looking for _me_, they were just looking for _something_. Like they knew something was there but they didn't know what. Three minutes. More like two." She stared at them pointedly, and they returned it almost unblinking until she apparently realized what was going on and rolled her eyes. "I'm done now, you idiots."

Chouji relaxed, though he still couldn't think of anything to say. Shikamaru, however, did not appear to share that problem.

"It could just be a coincidence," he said. "But I doubt it. From the way you described the rain itself, it definitely sounds like a jutsu of some kind. Maybe for detection?"

"You mean like a proximity alert technique?" Chouji asked. He was decently acquainted with those. He had an earth-based one set up around their camp at that very moment.

"Could be," Shikamaru said. "But the amount of chakra and concentration it would take to keep something like that up full time is astronomical. How could they manage it?"

"How would it even work?" Ino asked. "If entering the rain activates the jutsu, how do they come get you so fast? Wouldn't they have to let down the jutsu to do that?"

"First off, there has to be a whole team of people that keep that jutsu going. They could be switching out, or maybe have people standing by that can investigate any disturbances they detect. But that kind of manpower…that's effort that would usually be directed elsewhere. So the ultimate question becomes: what are they trying to hide?"

"It has to be something big," Ino said. "From everything we've learned they haven't been seen outside their village in years."

"Do you think they even know there's a war?" Chouji asked.

"They might not," Shikamaru said. "In any case, we're going to need to get in there somehow. We'll scout it out tomorrow at dawn. Until then, we should get some rest." He turned his attention to his pack, but Chouji suddenly found himself distracted.

Working at the Academy gave him the opportunity to research and practice jutsu he otherwise might never think of. He had an affinity for earth-element chakra, and so had been focusing mainly on _doton_ techniques. One of the ones he'd recently mastered happened to be the detection-style jutsu not entirely unlike the one they'd just been discussing (albeit on a much smaller scale that he laid around their camp each night. It expended a fair bit of chakra, but he wasn't using it for much else except for the _henge_ he had to keep up. But the expended chakra wasn't what concerned him at the moment – it was the fact that two foreign chakra sources had entered the field.

"Guys!" He tried to shout as quietly as possible. Shikamaru and Ino turned in unison and looked at him questioningly. "We've got company. Two."

"Scatter," Shikamaru ordered, and then he vanished. Chouji didn't need to be told twice; he wasted no time in leaping into the nearest tree, and saw Ino do the same. Only seconds later an arrow moving at insane speed struck the decoy he'd left behind, lifting it off the ground and pinning it to the trunk of a tree several meters away. He didn't have time to see it transform into a log, because as soon as his attacker realized it was a fake he would be in danger again. As he leapt to the next tree limb, he heard from above him a rushing sound, and looked to see hundreds of senbon needles descending from an umbrella that had been thrown in the air. He remembered Kiba telling him of witnessing this technique in their first chuunin exam – it had been used against Gaara to absolutely no effect. Unfortunately, he himself did not have an impenetrable automatic defense, and as it was the senbon were nearly on top of him by the time he noticed them.

_Kuso_, he swore in his head. He molded chakra as fast as he ever had, and managed to pull off a fairly sloppy kawarimi at the last instant before the needles struck. He was pretty sure he ended up giving away his position when he landed, but at least he wasn't dead. Not yet.

He was about to conceal himself again when he felt the tiniest air disturbance from behind him. He whipped out a kunai and spun around just in time to deflect another arrow that had been fired at him. The force of the projectile shocked him, though. He'd never seen an arrow fired that hard before. Granted, there were very few true archers in Konoha, and none that he knew of made it their sole specialization, but he had a feeling they would if they could fire an arrow like that.

_Bunshin no jutsu!_ Chouji and his three clones dispersed in every direction at top speed. It would only distract the enemy for a few moments, but hopefully it would buy his teammates time to get the drop on them. It was up to Shikamaru and Ino to win this fight, since Chouji was ill-equipped to take on long-range opponents such as these. Even if he could, he didn't know where they were but they could see him, which also put him at a severe disadvantage. Especially in the dark.

-

Shikamaru watched as Chouji and his clones spread out. It wouldn't fool the enemy for long, but hopefully it would give him some time to execute one of the plans he'd worked out in advance for such situations. There were several, but he was limited to the ones that didn't require his teammates' help. He was further restrained by the fact that it was nighttime in an already dense forest, which was dim at the best of times during the day. Were it not for his years of training and practice, he wouldn't have been able to make out anything.

He knew Ino was out there and hadn't been discovered yet, but he didn't have time to make contact with her. He was going to have to trust her to handle herself.

He planted an explosive tag on the tree limb he was standing on and quickly leapt away, throwing another one attached to a kunai off into the distance. From the shots fired so far, he had a fair idea where the enemy with the bow and arrow was. That was the one he had to go after first. Since the other one hadn't attacked since his initial assault with the raining needles failed, it was likely he was more of a mid- to short-range fighter and was waiting for his partner to finish somebody off before moving in. Of course, Shikamaru couldn't rule out the possibility that he was simply repositioning himself for another sneak attack either.

He dropped down to the ground and quickly rigged up a wire and a spring with a kunai at the base of the tree he came out of, then turned around and looked down a natural alleyway in the trees. Due to a large boulder on his right and another tree immediately to his left straight ahead was the only direction anybody could come at him from except from above. He waited a few seconds and an arrow came speeding toward him to strike him right between the eyes – and right on through to the tree behind him. He watched from his position on the ground as his _Kage Kawarimi_ dissipated and the arrow sprung the kunai trap, sending it flying in exactly the direction the arrow had just come from. He heard a rustling in the bushes as the archer quickly got out of the way. Immediately he brought up his first two fingers on his right hand, making the seal to release the charge in the explosive tag he'd thrown earlier.

The enemy performed a basic kawarimi of his own to escape at the last possible moment, and from Shikamaru's vantage point he could see where the man turned up: about twenty feet off the ground in a tree much closer than where he'd been before. Shikamaru hastened to form the seals for his signature capture technique even while running toward the man at top speed. He hurled several shuriken at the same time he sent his shadow out, and the man predictably saw them coming and backflipped out of the tree – right into Shikamaru's shadow.

"The _Kagemane no jutsu_ was a success," he said smugly, now walking calmly toward the man instead of running.

"Like hell it was!" came another voice from above him. He instinctively leapt backward and was just in time to avoid at least three dozen senbon that plowed into the ground where he'd just been. A moment later a huge man landed on top of them – actually standing on the needle points protruding out of the earth – and swung back with an umbrella ready to strike.

In a flash that was too quick for Shikamaru to see, the man was sent reeling off into the distance and Ino appeared before him, apparently having just kicked the man hard enough to knock away not only the umbrella, which was now on the forest floor at his feet, but also the man's sandals, which rested there as well.

"I knew you'd make him show himself eventually," Ino said brightly, having taken the man's place on top of the needles.

"Chouji lost him then?" Shikamaru asked.

"For long enough. You showed yourself right away, so they decided to go for you instead of looking for him again."

"Basic tactics. Take the easiest opportunity that's presented to you." Ino nodded. "You'd better go after him. That was a good kick, but he was a big guy and it might not have knocked him out. Unfortunately, though the plan to get him in the open worked, it means I lost my hold on the other one. I need to go finish him off."

"Right," Ino said, and vanished as quickly as she'd appeared.

No sooner had she done so than Shikamaru heard the tell-tale _twang_ of a bowstring. For him to be able to hear it meant the archer was still very close by. Too close by. He didn't have time to dodge completely and the arrow took a gash out of his right arm. Ducking behind a rock for cover he pulled a strip of cloth out of his pocket and wrapped it around the wound, tying it tight and wincing the whole time.

_I need to finish this quickly before any more of them show up._ He ran back toward the natural alley from before, only this time he was at the other end of it. He could hear his opponent approaching from his left, so he made a few seals and fired off one of his more newly-acquired jutsu. _Ninpou, Kage Nui!_ His shadow shot forth and multiple needle-like appendages burst out of it and shot up toward the nearest tree. The archer clearly saw them coming and avoided them by jumping to the next tree down the alley. Shikamaru chased him as far as he could, but by the time the archer reached the last tree on the left side, Shikamaru couldn't make his shadow needles reach any farther, and he was panting with the effort. He let the jutsu fade away from where it was hovering a good eight feet from its intended target's face.

"If that was your best try, then you're as good as dead," the man called to him. Luckily enough for Shikamaru, the angle formed from their current positions in relation to the alley and the trees along side it prevented the man from getting a clear shot. Naturally, he leapt to the tree at the end of the row whereupon he would have a straight shot with no obstructions. Shikamaru smirked in triumph and brought his hand to his face once more.

"Shit!" cried the hapless man, who had now clearly noticed what he was heading toward – what Shikamaru had herded him straight into.

Even as he released the charge and detonated the tag, Shikamaru watched as the archer, moving as fast as he'd seen anyone move, pulled an arrow from his quiver and fired it behind him into the trunk of a tree. It pulled a rope along with it, and the instant it was embedded in the tree trunk he pulled hard on the rope, arresting his forward motion and causing him to fall to the ground. He managed to land on his feet even as the tree above him was blasted apart, sending wooden shrapnel almost as far as to Shikamaru himself. When it was over, it was clear the man had suffered some minor injuries but was definitely still able to fight. Moreover, the explosion had completely destroyed the top of the tree resulting in a gaping hole in the canopy, allowing bright moonlight to pour in and through to the forest floor. Relative to the darkness they'd been fighting in, it felt like sudden daybreak.

Wanting to strike while the enemy was still disoriented, Shikamaru let fly with his shadow once more. The result was to have his enemy laugh derisively at his tactics.

"You've got to be kidding!" the archer said. "Sure, that trick may work in the dark, but I can see your stupid shadow perfectly now!" He dodged too his left, and as he moved a sudden glint appeared to catch his attention. The earlier spring-kunai trap had pulled a wire along with it, which now shone clearly in the moonlight.

"Trying to make me trip or something?" the man asked as he lazily jumped over the wire – and froze solid in midair, crashing to the ground.

"The _Kagemane_ was a success once again," Shikamaru announced, even as his shadow spilled out from its hiding place under the wire to envelop the man – in jumping over the perceived trap, he'd thrown himself directly into it. Finally finished, he walked toward the man while he formed the seals for the _Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu_, since less distance would make it easier to strangle him. When it was done and the archer had choked out his last breath, Shikamaru bent down to inspect his foe and was instantly filled with dread.

-

It turned out that Ino's kick hadn't actually knocked the large ninja out, but had succeeded in dazing him something fierce. The sound of him crashing against a tree had alerted Chouji, who moments later came dive-bombing out of said tree and put down the attacker for good with a well-timed _Baika no Jutsu_. When Ino arrived she found her teammate hoisting himself up off their foe and out of the hole he'd made. She offered him her hand and pulled him to his feet, and they left to go find Shikamaru.

Ino led Chouji back toward where she'd spoken to Shikamaru, and when they heard the explosion they made a beeline for it. They arrived just in time to see their comrade finish the enemy off and bend down to investigate. When they came out to meet him, they received a shock. He looked up at them, and in the moonlight they could see he was white as a sheet and covered in sweat.

"Are you all right, Shikamaru?" Chouji asked.

"Where's the other one?" Shikamaru asked in return.

"Over that way," Ino said, indicating the area behind her and a little to her right.

"Take me to him."

She and Chouji did as they were told, confused though they were, and watched Shikamaru quickly inspect the body of the second enemy. When he turned back to them, it was with a very serious expression they rarely saw on him.

"Go get your gear," he ordered. "We have to get out of here now."

"Shikamaru, what is it?" Ino asked, growing concerned.

"Not now," he nearly snapped, already making his way back to their camp and thus forcing them to follow. "I'll explain once we're on the move, but we have to get away from here as quickly as possible."

They didn't argue, knowing Shikamaru well enough to realize that he obviously knew something they didn't and that simply following his lead would keep them out of harm's way until he decided it was safe enough to clue them in. They gathered their things and set out, traveling all night at a grueling pace away from the mysterious Hidden Rain Village. Finally, at daybreak, Ino's patience had worn out and she forced him to stop and tell them what was going on.

"I thought we were supposed to make contact with the Hidden Rain no matter what?" she asked. "I mean sure, we just killed two of their operatives, but that was in self defense, and you and I both know there are other ways of getting in there. They don't know it was us who killed them anyway."

"That wasn't the Hidden Rain Village," Shikamaru answered gravely, still catching his breath. "Even if it was at one point, it isn't any more."

"What are you talking about?" Ino asked. Chouji had opened one of his snack bags and was munching away while soaking up their conversation.

"This is going to take a bit of an explanation," Shikamaru told her, "so you might as well get comfortable." Once she assured him that she was, he began his tale.

"As a jounin, it's required of me to study the bingo book and familiarize myself with all the shinobi in it. Moreover, as a strategic specialist, I'm privy to a lot of information beyond that. There's an organization out there that has already proven themselves a threat to the Leaf, and even aside from that they are lethally dangerous regardless. The organization's name is 'Akatsuki', and as far as we can tell they're made up entirely of S-class criminals and missing-nin.

"Known members include Konoha's Uchiha Itachi, and one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist by the name of Hoshigaki Kisame. Also, it is known that Orochimaru was once a member as well."

Ino was, to say the least, floored by this information. She'd only been seven years old at the time but she knew who Uchiha Itachi was, all right. And she'd never met any of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen, but she'd heard enough from Sakura, who'd encountered two of them, that she never wanted to. And of course she knew who Orochimaru was. To think that an organization existed which contained nothing but men like these made her shiver quite involuntarily. But she knew she hadn't gotten the whole story yet.

"Okay Shikamaru, that's terrifying, but what does it have to do with us right now?"

"The trademark of Akatsuki's members is to put a long scratch through the middle of their hitai-ate, symbolizing the severing of any connection to their home village. The two men we just fought were sporting that symbol. One of them having it might have been a bizarre coincidence, but both of them clinched it. Those men were subordinates of someone in Akatsuki, and that person or persons is operating out of whatever village that was."

The implications of this were not lost on Ino. "You think they have an entire village of ninja under their control?" she asked.

"It certainly looks like it. And even though all those ninja together probably aren't as dangerous as any one of the organization's full members, it means they can have eyes, ears and operatives in a lot more places at once. In addition to being really bad for us, this is crucial intelligence that we have to get back to Konoha."

"I'll go," Chouji spoke up suddenly.

"Chouji…" Shikamaru began, but the larger man waved his hand.

"Don't even start, Shikamaru," he said. "You still need to find the real Hidden Rain Village, and even though you know Ino could handle it, you'd never be able to handle letting her go off alone knowing what's in this country. Neither would I, come to that. You said yourself this is crucial information that Konoha has to know; I'm the best one for the job."

Ino could see the wheels turning in Shikamaru's head as he tried to think of a way to talk Chouji out of this. She was racking her brain to come up with something herself, but had nothing. Finally, Shikamaru nodded his head reluctantly.

"Don't worry about me," Chouji said, placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder and smiling. "I'll be fine. 'Go home' is about the easiest mission I'm ever likely to get, right?" Shikamaru said nothing, but smiled slightly and nodded again.

"Be careful, Chouji," Ino said. "Asuma-sensei's going to want to take us out to eat when we get back, and somebody's got to finish my share after all."

"Right," he said with a grin. And after hoisting his pack back onto his shoulder, he was gone.

-

It rained the day after Chouji left – the first time since they'd entered the so-called "Country of Rain". It only lasted for a couple of hours, but it was successful in further dampening their spirits. They decided to spend the night at an inn – something they'd only done three times so far – so as to get some decent food and shelter. They came upon a strangely familiar village as the sun was setting and entered it, hoping to find a good place to spend the night, as well as some information. If the place they had seen really was the former site of Amegakure no Sato, then where was it now? Did it even still exist? Surely somewhere in this country someone _had_ to know something about their local ninja suddenly killing each other, for the Akatsuki subordinates they'd killed had been wearing marred hitae-ate of the Rain.

Ino pointed out a yakitori stand that looked good and they stopped to eat. It was the first good food they'd eaten in days and they both ordered second helpings. Shikamaru couldn't help but think of his best friend at a time like this, and hoped he was okay.

After dinner they found an inn and checked in under the guise of a young couple out traveling (which of course meant Shikamaru would be sleeping on the floor). The young lady behind the counter smiled indulgently at them when she handed him the key, and they tromped up the stairs to finally get some decent rest. Or something like it. Once they'd deposited their things, Ino announced she was going to take a long-overdue bath in the inn's hot spring. Shikamaru couldn't argue with an idea like that, and followed her out.

The hot water was incredibly relaxing, and he felt a week's worth of tension slowly melt away. Ino was the most fanatical about bathing – she hated going on long missions and not having access to a bath – but that didn't mean it wasn't something he missed as well.

"Ne, Shikamaru?" Ino asked from the women's bath just over the fence from him. "Does something about this town seem strange to you?"

He knew what she meant, though he couldn't put it into words. There was something about this town that was just a little bit…off. It wasn't ominous or even unnerving, just something that niggled at the back of his brain as though it should be obvious.

He nodded. "It feels…almost like I've been here before," he said, trying to best describe the weird feeling he was having.

"Doesn't it?" she agreed quickly. "But I know we haven't. We didn't come this way before."

"We're tired," he said. "Maybe it'll make more sense in the morning." He heard her hum a reply rather than speak it, and they didn't say anything else until they were on their way back to the room.

"Do you think Chouji's all right?" Ino asked him as they walked down the hallway together.

"He'll be fine," Shikamaru assured her with much more certainty than he felt. It wasn't that he didn't have faith in his teammate, it was just… "He'll probably pick up a government tail within the next day or so. So will we, come to think of it." Somehow Shikamaru had neglected to realize at the time that Chouji's absence meant that their method for avoiding the government agents would be gone as well. He really did need sleep.

He unlocked the room for them and headed for his pack while Ino crawled into the room's only futon. Just as he was getting his bedroll out he heard Ino scoff from behind him.

"Don't be ridiculous, Shikamaru," she said. He turned and saw her watching him from where she was propped up on her elbow. Somehow she'd already changed into pajamas he'd almost forgotten she'd packed. "You need a good night's sleep as much as I do, so get your ass changed and get in here." She lifted the covers, indicating he was to get into the futon with her.

"Um, Ino…"Shikamaru started, not quite sure how to respond to this situation.

"Oh, stop being an idiot and just get in already," she said, the look on her face clearly saying she would not put up with his foolishness. With a sigh, and knowing it was always easier not to argue with Ino, Shikamaru capitulated. He changed into his own pajamas that he hadn't even been sure he'd have the opportunity to use when he packed them (Ino looked away, of course), and climbed under the covers next to her.

It was a strange feeling. It wasn't uncomfortable – far from it – but it wasn't entirely comfortable, either. He could sense her right next to him, could feel her warmth and detect her heartbeat, and he didn't know exactly what he should do now. Just going to sleep suddenly seemed impossible, and talking would be very forced and awkward.

He was saved from making the decision himself when Ino rolled toward him and draped her arm across him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You can stop being so tense," she practically giggled. "I promise I'm not going to take advantage of you."

He couldn't help but laugh at that, and afterwards he finally managed to relax. He brought his own arm up and draped it over her in return, wrapping it around her lower back and pulling her slightly closer to him. She responded by snuggling up to him and nuzzling her face a bit deeper into the crook of his neck. She was very soft, he suddenly noticed, not at all like one would expect from a girl who trained her body to the limit regularly and could punch through walls like they were made of rice paper. And she really smelled very nice.

"Good night, Shikamaru," she murmured, already drifting off.

"G'night."

-

When Shikamaru awoke the next morning it was not to Ino stirring, though he found himself still entangled with her and his face somehow buried in her hair – a position he was loathe to tear away from were he to be completely honest with himself. No, the reason for his rather abrupt awakening was that his highly attuned sense of awareness developed through years of shinobi training had told him they weren't alone. Hadn't been, anyway. He was about to force himself up to investigate when Ino's soft voice sounded from the vicinity of his neck.

"Shikamaru?" She spoke his name as a question, and the implied inquiry was quite clear.

"Whoever it was left just as I woke up, though I think that may have been a coincidence," he whispered without moving, in case whoever it had been was still watching them from somewhere. They needed to appear asleep.

"I wonder how long he was there," she said, as quietly as she could. "I woke up just before you, I think, and I could sense him just outside the window. I was going to wake you up but then he left."

"I'm going to check it out, but we need to keep up the act so I'll pretend I'm just now waking up. You go back to sleep." She gave a tiny nod and returned to feigning sleep while he opened his eyes and slowly rolled away from her, taking care not to wake her. He got up and stretched, then lazily made his way over to the window and surveyed the town below him. Nothing but the typical morning foot traffic greeted his eye, and in an instant the reasons for the elusive aspect of familiarity he'd felt toward this town was clear as day. He couldn't believe they'd missed it.

He turned and sauntered back to the futon, and gently shook Ino's shoulder. She groaned and looked up at him, the question pounding in her eyes.

"Good morning," he said brightly (and loudly) with a smile. Under his breath, he added, "As soon as you can, take a look out the window and tell me what you notice." He needed to be absolutely sure, and while he was confident his conclusion was correct, he wanted to see if she came to it as well.

She took a minute or so making a show of getting up and about since their window was still wide open and anyone could see them, and then she made her way over to it and had a look. When she was finished she shut it and turned to look at him, a worried expression on her face.

"Shikamaru…"

"So you did see it," he surmised.

"How could I miss it? How could we have missed it? Shikamaru, this town is full of ninja!"

The subtle sense of acquaintance they'd felt for the town came from growing up in a shinobi village. There was just a certain way that shinobi tended to carry themselves, even during mundane activities like picking up groceries, that only another shinobi would see. It was nearly impossible to spot a single person this way, or even a few, but when a place was full of them it gave off a certain vibe that was easy to pick up on – provided the shinobi in question didn't know they were being observed.

"They probably don't know we're shinobi," Shikamaru reasoned. "They'd be more careful for one thing, and whoever was spying on us would have done a better job of concealing himself. Regardless, I think we've just found the new Village Hidden in the Rain."

-

They discussed it thoroughly while packing up, and by the time they headed out to breakfast had decided to approach someone about seeing the local shinobi leader. After all, if these people were indeed the remnants of the Rain ninja, then they'd finally located their mission objective.

"Where should we go?" Ino asked after they'd eaten and were out walking the streets.

"I think the fish merchant down the street from where we're staying looks like a good bet," Shikamaru answered. "He has enough scars to be an experienced ninja, and I saw him directing a couple of other people around earlier." Ino seemed to think this was a good idea, because she followed him down the street to where the man in question was yelling about all the succulent fish he had for sale.

"Excuse me," Shikamaru hailed the man as they approached. When the merchant looked their way, he jumped right to the point. "We're not from around here, and we need to speak with whoever is in charge, please."

"Well," said the man is his best friendly, helpful voice, "The village leader's house is that way," he said, pointing back the way they'd come, "and the house of the daimyo's official is just over there," he pointed to a large, ornate-looking house down the next street."

"I'm sorry, I should have been more clear," Shikamaru said. "W need to speak with whoever is _really_ in charge around here."

The man's eyes narrowed immediately as he re-evaluated the two of them. "I see," he said. "One moment." He put down the knife he'd been using to cut fish and turned to the small alley behind his stand. "Yutaro!" he bellowed. A few moments later a young boy came running out carrying an extremely large fish. He didn't speak, but looked to the man for instructions.

"Watch the stand. These two need to speak with Hanzou-sama." The boy nodded and the man signaled for them to follow him.

"Mute," he said, indicating the boy Yutaro with a jerk of his head. "Always does what he's told, though."

When Shikamaru didn't answer, he continued. "You didn't say where you were from."

"No, I didn't," Shikamaru affirmed. "You'll find out soon enough, provided this Hanzou-sama decides to tell you. That would be Salamander Hanzou, I assume?" Shikamaru now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that these were the real Rain ninja. Salamander Hanzou was a legend – especially in Konoha, which had faced him more than once during wartime – and the fact that this groups leader was named Hanzou was just too much to be coincidence.

"You know of him," their escort said. If this shocked him, he did a good job of hiding it.

"I do," Shikamaru replied. "Should I not? He is quite well-known in the shinobi world. I am however surprised to learn he's still alive." Salamander Hanzou had been leading the Rain ninja since before the Legendary Sanin of Konoha were even known as that. He had to have been born around the same time as the Sandaime Hokage.

"Hanzou-sama is very resourceful," was the only response he got. They traveled in silence the rest of the way, and were shown to a large warehouse in the center of town. It looked a bit run-down, but their guide assured them Hanzou was inside.

"I will go in first," he said. "Wait sixty seconds and then follow." He opened the door and left them there, but just as it was closing Ino discreetly kicked a pebble into it to keep it open the tiniest amount. Shikamaru flashed her a sly grin before surreptitiously performing the seals for his _Kage Kawarimi no Jutsu_. To anyone watching, he appeared to still be standing next to Ino waiting to go inside, but in reality he had slipped through the tiny crack in the door and followed the fish-ninja in the guise of his shadow.

"Hanzou-sama," the man called, falling to one knee. A voice answered, though Shikamaru could not see its source.

"What is it, Jin'e?"

"Hanzou-sama, two foreign shinobi have arrived in town and asked to speak with you," Jin'e answered. "They're waiting outside now."

"They must be from Konohagakure, or from Sunagakure. They are here to ask us to honor our alliance."

"What should we do?"

"We must give them no reason to be suspicious," Hanzou said. "We will act as though we are still neutral, and proceed accordingly. No action is to be taken against them; it would be a waste to reveal ourselves to Konoha and Suna for only two shinobi."

"Understood," Jin'e said.

"Bring them in."

"They're coming now."

That was Shikamaru's cue to end the jutsu and enter the warehouse with Ino. The only thing on his mind now was how to get them safely out of this village. From what he'd just heard, if they played along as if they knew nothing then Hanzou would probably just let them go. He could not afford to bank on that, however.

"Hurry up, or they'll know you were up to something," Ino whispered to him as they opened the door and walked in.

"Hello?" Shikamaru called. It would give everything away if he knew where he was going.

"In here," came Jin'e's voice. They followed it and found him standing beside a large chair at the back end of a huge storeroom. There were two men standing on either side of the chair in addition to him, a ninja in each corner of the room as well. But it was the man sitting in the chair who commanded all attention. The bits of his face and hair not concealed by his respirator mask were old, wrinkled and grey. His left arm was missing and his right had only three fingers with no thumb. His right leg was missing below the knee and his left foot was scarred almost beyond recognition – though it did have all five toes.

Shikamaru and Ino bowed, and when their host did not introduce himself, Shikamaru did it for him. "I presume I am in the presence of the legendary Salamander Hanzou of Amegakure no Sato?"

"You presume correctly," replied Hanzou in his already familiar raspy voice. "And to whom might I be speaking?"

"My name is Noritomo Kensuke of Konohagakure no Sato, and this is Komatsu Nana," Shikamaru said. "We've come here to solicit your assistance in our current war against the Mist, Cloud, Rock and Sound."

"A bold request," Hanzou said. He even deigned to laugh a little.

"I'm merely informing you of our intentions, not claiming them to be simple," Shikamaru said.

"Indeed, indeed," Hanzou replied. "Well, I can tell that you're forthright, at least. A good quality in any ambassador. Tell me, what reasons can you give for why we should aid you? As you no doubt have noticed, the Rain has fallen on its own problems of late, and we can nary afford to be tying ourselves up in those of others."

"Konoha bases its request on the alliance treaty you have with not only ourselves, but with our allies in the Sand. We offer you any help you require with your own troubles in exchange for military and intelligence support in the war."

"Is that so?" Hanzou wheezed. "Are you aware that we are also allied with both the Mist and the Cloud, whom you profess to be your enemies in this war?"

"We are aware, yes," Shikamaru answered. "We have been instructed to request of you – if you do not wish to come to our aid – that you remain neutral in the conflict and not join with our enemies."

There was a long pause, and then Hanzou said, "I see. Well then, Noritomo-san. You have my word that I will consider your offer. I will have a messenger sent to the Hokage within two weeks. If no messenger has arrived by that time, then you are free to assume the worst. Is this acceptable to you?"

Shikamaru's mind raced. Two weeks? Obviously he had no intention of sending a messenger, but did that mean their true allegiance would be revealed within that time span? If so, another attack on Konoha was imminent. The only other explanation was that Hanzou was planning to send a messenger with a false missive, which would only backfire on him sooner or later.

"Yes, that will be acceptable," Shikamaru said, bowing again. "Thank you very much for seeing us, Hanzou-sama." He turned to leave and Ino followed him, and when no one else did he assumed this to mean they were free to let themselves out. Now to get out of this village as quickly as possible.

-

"Was that wise, Hanzou-sama?" Jin'e asked. "A messenger will have to be sent now, and if our true nature is discovered it will spell the end for us."

"It's already been discovered," Hanzou rasped, albeit with an air of someone who'd just been mildly impressed. "That young Leaf ninja thinks he's pretty slick. He came in here telling us he had been sent to ask for our help, but he never actually asked for it because he knew we'd never give it. He's smart, but that's where he slipped up."

"What should we do?" Jin'e asked.

"Kill them," Hanzou said. "If worse comes to worst we can blame it on the rebels, but the two of them cannot be allowed to leave this village."

"Understood," Jin'e said, and vanished. A half a minute later he reappeared with the squad of men he'd assembled to carry out his task.

"Hanzou-sama!" he yelled. "They've disappeared!"

"What!?" hissed the ancient Rain leader.

"They should have just been walking down the main street to the town gate, but we can't find them anywhere!"

"Fools!" shrieked Hanzou. "They're onto us again! Send out search squads and set up sentries! Don't let anyone leave this village without the proper paperwork! Put those government dogs to work for us for a change! Do it now!"

"Yes, Hanzou-sama," Jin'e bowed, and vanished again with his squad.

-

"This mission just keeps getting better and better," Ino muttered from where the two of them were cramped together in a rain barrel.

"They're going to have everyone searching for us," Shikamaru pointed out. "We need to get out of this village now." He had contingency plans for escaping discreetly, but none of them involved every shinobi in the village hunting them down.

"Shikamaru!" Ino whispered urgently, jabbing him in the arm. "Quick, perform a henge into someone nondescript and help me steal that cart!" He didn't even know what cart she was talking about, but he transformed anyway and shot out of the barrel with her.

There was an unwatched cart sitting not three meters away with a payload of sake and a donkey hitched to it. He watched as Ino, now in the form of an old man, leaped up onto the driver's seat and motioned for him to follow. Knowing arguing would only draw attention to them, he complied.

"What are you doing?" he demanded as she flipped the reins and got the cart moving.

"This is your cart," she said, handing him the reins. "You're a sake merchant, and I'm your father traveling with you."

"What are you…this is never going to work!" He was doing his best to express his anger and not cause a scene. It was difficult.

"It won't if you don't start acting natural," she scolded. Hearing Ino's speech patterns in an old man's voice was somewhat unsettling. "Now hurry up and get us away from here before the owner of this cart notices it's missing."

"I don't recall you being in command of this mission," Shikamaru growled furiously, but did as she suggested.

"I don't recall you coming up with any ideas to get us out of here," Ino snapped back, clearly as livid as he was. Shikamaru refused to respond, and they rode in silence all the way to the main street, and when the town gate came in sight, he actually started to think they might get away with this. But his hopes were dashed when he saw what awaited them there: two men, an agent of the daimyo's government and an Ame-nin, inspecting the paperwork on every person who was leaving the village. They were not from Rain country and thus did not have any paperwork, nor had they had time to forge any.

"We can't go through there," Shikamaru said. "They'll know who we are right away. There's still time to ditch this cart and come up with another plan."

"Every second we spend in this town brings them closer to finding and killing us," Ino said. "Thank the kami you were able to eavesdrop on them again as we were leaving or we'd probably already be dead. But can you for once just trust me? This is going to work, I promise. Now just act natural and don't give us away. Remember, you sell sake."

Shikamaru did trust her and he wanted this to work, he just couldn't see how it would. Regardless, he was out of options. He couldn't think of another way out and Ino was right about one thing: they couldn't afford to stay here for however long it would take him to come up with something. And they were now at the checkpoint.

"Stop here, please," the government agent said. Shikamaru pulled on the reins and their donkey halted.

"Can I see your identification, please?" the agent asked.

And then, from his right, Shikamaru heard something so faint he wasn't even sure he had heard it. But he felt Ino move in her disguise ever so slightly, so he must have. "You don't need to see his identification."

It was so absurd it was laughable. But all of a sudden the ninja guarding the gate placed his hand on the officer's shoulder and said, "We don't need to see his identification."

"These aren't the people you're looking for," was the next nearly-inaudible murmur.

"These aren't the people we're looking for," the Rain ninja said.

"He can go about his business," old man Ino muttered.

"You can go about your business," the ninja said to Shikamaru.

"Move along."

"Move along," the ninja said, waving them through. "Move along." Shikamaru complied, though he was in a stupor from what had just happened. For ten minutes they rode along the old road as fast as they could without giving the appearance of fleeing. The entire time Shikamaru could only stare straight ahead, fraught with disbelief over the manner of their escape. When he heard the tell-tale _poof_ that announced the end of Ino's transformation, he turned his head to see her wearing the brightest grin he'd ever seen adorn her face. Her beautiful, wonderful face that he could swear was actually radiating light from that smile.

"Well?" she prompted. "What do you think? Am I good or am I good?" And in that moment, Shikamaru could not help himself. He had just witnessed the most remarkable and impressive thing he had ever seen, and she wanted to know what he thought. He'd show her what he thought. Dropping his own _henge_, and without a thought for the perilous situation they had yet to fully escape from, Shikamaru reached over to Ino, pulled her to him, and kissed her for all he was worth.

- - -

- - -

- - -

My first bona-fide Shikamaru strategy. Yee-haw. I've sort of fudged it before a couple of times, but I wanted to do a good one this time, seeing as how he's the star of this particular episode and I wanted to do him justice. Not as good as anything Kishimoto's come up with, but I hope I can get better at them. It was fun, in any case.

Also, you may have noticed that certain elements of canon appeared in this chapter. The simple explanation for that is now that we know who Pein and Konan are, I figured I'd just use them rather than making up characters to fill their roles as I'd originally considered doing. Having made that decision, it was obvious that I had to involve them somehow in this chapter, seeing as they live in the former Hidden Rain Village (putting Hanzou in was just for fun, though please note that in canon he is in fact dead, and I didn't catch something there that you missed). It led to a few interesting changes as well. Originally Chouji was with them during the Hidden Rain escape – he was the donkey. A humorous scene I was sorry to lose, but it was counterbalanced by the scene with Shikamaru and Ino I got to do that would have been impossible were Chouji still there.

As always, acknowledgement must be given to my prereaders. Thanks to HitokiriOTD who does what he does so well, and who pointed out quite a few things in this chapter that were poorly constructed. Thanks also in advance to SJR, whose schedule combined with mine means that this is an early posting, and that a final draft will be reposted later once he's finished his edits and I in turn have a chance to incorporate them. I thought this was good enough for now though, and y'all have waited long enough.

Translations below:

Boukyaku – lapse of memory/oblivion. Hence _boukyaku no jutsu_ would be a technique to erase one's memory.

Yakitori – grilled chicken, typically served on a stick like a kebab.


	6. Episode V: Attack of the Clones

I'm starting this episode now, not having finished even half the previous episode. I find this keeps me moving faster, which I assume will be received well.

By current predictions, this will be a long chapter, possibly rivalling the prologue, or even the final chapter of Koorikage. I hope that's okay.

Lastly, before I begin, I would just like to sincerely thank everyone who has thus far left a review. I truly enjoy reading your feedback and your opinions. If you don't have an account, I encourage you to leave your email address if you're doing an anonymous review so I can get in touch with you and reply to your review. On occasion I end up having some interesting discussions with people about where the story is going.

For those of you who review regularly, and/or have been reviewing since KK's early days, my gratitude knows no bounds. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see that you've stuck with the story for so long, and I hope you continue to enjoy it. I'd mention you all by name, but we're not really supposed to and you all know who you are.

- - -

SHINOBI WARS: Episode V – Attack of the Clones

Three distinct figures stood in shadow beneath a secluded outcropping near the southern border of the Country of Grass. The two larger figures immediately began speaking to one another, while the shorter one remained silent, looking on as the other two discussed their plans.

"Are you sure he'll be there?"

"He will come. He would not abandon them when their need is so great."

"You would know, I guess. After all the trouble we went through, I hope he doesn't disappoint."

"Be wary. He is _Jinchuuriki_, after all."

"Don't worry about it. I can handle whatever that guy can throw at me."

The shorter man chose this moment to enter the conversation. "Let's be going, then," he said simply, and he and his partner departed, leaving their comrade behind to report that the final stage of their mission had commenced.

-

"Is this the fastest way, Inago-san?" Sakura asked as she, Naruto and their new companion sped through the tall grass and shrubs that filled the gaps between the sparse trees in southern Taki no Kuni.

"It is," the Tree ninja replied. "Keep a sharp eye out for Waterfall ninja; we're cutting pretty close to their village."

"Do you really think they'd attack us?" Naruto asked. He had actually been entertaining the idea of stopping there to get assistance, as the Waterfall were supposedly their allies as well – which meant there should be a team of Leaf ninja there too.

"Maybe, maybe not," Inago said. "But I'd rather avoid them if possible. I'm…not exactly popular among Waterfall ninja, and I'd prefer not to have any interference on our way to the Grass."

"All right then, if you say so," Naruto acquiesced. He was dying to know what Inago had done to become "not exactly popular" amongst Taki-nin, but even he had the sense to know that now was not the proper time to ask such a thing. He secretly hoped Sakura noticed how professional he was being.

"How much longer do you think until we reach the Hidden Grass Village?" Sakura asked.

"If we keep going at our current pace, less than a day," Inago answered. "But I would recommend taking at least a short break before we get there. We won't be of any help if we're too tired to fight."

"We should stop when it gets dark and sleep, then head out a few hours before sunrise," Naruto said. "That way it'll still be dark when we sneak in." He noticed Sakura giving him a proud smile out of the corner of his eye and forced himself not to smile back and ruin the groove he was in. He focused all his attention on Inago, whom he was ostensibly talking to anyway.

"A good plan," the Ki-nin nodded. "I like it."

"So do I," Sakura added. "It will give us plenty of time to rest before we have to worry about encountering any enemies. And if there's anyone on watch, they'll probably be tired after a long night."

"If we're lucky," Inago said. "I'd say the word is probably out by now among any bounty-hunters lurking around that you two aren't an easy catch. And with me along too, I bet they'll think twice before risking their necks."

"We can't count on that, though," Sakura said.

"No, we can't," Inago agreed. "But we can hope for it, right?"

Naruto couldn't help chuckling. "You'd drive Shikamaru crazy with an attitude like that."

"Who?"

-

As the first rays of sunlight shone through the window, Kiba stirred on the futon he'd been sleeping on and blinked himself awake. It was his second day waking up in the Hidden Grass Village, and things were already reminiscent of his visit to the Hole in Yukigakure. The daimyo's army had laid siege to the village and the sense of being penned in had nearly every denizen of the shinobi village on edge. Even for ninja, sneaking through a mass of soldiers a kilometre thick was a daunting task. Only a few so far had attempted it – to gather information so as to prepare a counterattack and to send word of their predicament – and though all but one had made it back successfully, it was a task few were anxious to take on.

He and his teammates had been given one room to share. Evidently such things were common in the Grass Village regardless of the gender of one's teammates. It was a little embarrassing, though nothing he couldn't deal with as a professional shinobi. But what bothered him most about the situation was that however little embarrassment he felt, he knew Hinata would feel it a hundred times over. Yet despite keeping a rather flushed complexion since their arrival in the room, she hadn't said a word about it. She was a professional as well, after all.

He was the first of them to awaken that morning – as had been the case the day before – and he decided to let his comrades get a little bit more sleep before rousing them. He would wake Shino first to spare Hinata having to witness them get dressed, and then so that they could be out of the room when she did. He hoped the village council's plan to break the siege was coming along swiftly, if only so that Hinata could escape this uncomfortable situation.

"Are you awake?" came Shino's voice through the still dim light. Kiba almost gave a start – he hadn't realized his teammate was awake yet – but he was in control of himself enough to halt that.

"Just barely," he replied quietly. No need to wake Hinata just yet. "What are you doing up, anyway?"

"One of my bugs alerted me to some sort of activity in the street outside," Shino said.

"What kind of activity?" Kiba asked, instantly poised for anything from a food delivery to an assassination attempt.

"I don't know, but it doesn't appear to be anything hostile toward us."

"That's a relief," Kiba said, letting out a breath. "It must be something to do with the siege."

"My thoughts exactly," Shino agreed. He began dressing and Kiba imitated him. Within moments they were strapping on their equipment and Shino was sticking his head into the hallway outside their room while Kiba gently shook Hinata's shoulder to wake her.

"Mmm?" she groaned sleepily. "What is it?"

"Shino says there's something going on outside," he told her. "We're going to check it out. Get dressed and meet us out there."

"Right," she said, and was already crawling out of her blankets when they left. Her nightgown was modest enough, but he was glad she hadn't had time to notice the blush that was creeping up his face. Not for the first time, he chastised himself for such stupid behaviour. He had to get a hold of himself. He was a ninja, not some dumb little kid with a crush on a pretty girl. Even if that pretty girl did happen to also be the sweetest person he'd ever met, and someone he'd cared for deeply since before he ever even thought about girls that way.

He shook his head angrily again. That line of thought wasn't getting him anywhere.

"What is it?" Shino asked as they stepped into the street. "Did you hear something?"

Kiba was so distracted he actually had to think for a moment to know what his friend was talking about. Once he did, he managed to say no, he hadn't, and that he was still just trying to wake himself up, without making his blush grow any bigger – from embarrassment, this time.

When they turned the corner at the end of their street they saw what the activity was. Dozens upon dozens of shinobi were gathering in the square near the east gate. That could only mean one thing.

"It looks like the daimyo's army is tired of waiting," Kiba remarked grimly.

"They are," said a voice behind them. Kiba whirled to see the owner of the voice – and instantly regretted doing so. It was the kunoichi who'd spoken to Sanjuro after the battle when they'd arrived. She'd come to thank them for their help soon after, and been very friendly with them. Taki, her name was. But that wasn't the problem. Maybe it was because his blood was already somewhat hot, but Kiba wondered if his blush would ever disappear this morning; the woman really did have ridiculously large breasts. Worse, unlike the Hokage's, which were almost comically huge, this girl managed to pull it off in a way that made their size seem perfectly natural. As he did every time he spoke with her, Kiba made an effort to avert his eyes without letting it look like he was doing exactly that. The woman didn't even show any cleavage – she didn't need to – and thank the kami for that. He'd probably bleed to death from the nosebleed.

"Are they only attacking from the east, then?" Shino asked. The stupid jerk never seemed to have any problems looking at her. Maybe all those bugs made him cold-blooded.

"Looks that way," Taki replied, all seriousness. Did she even know what kind of effect she had? "They probably figure that concentrating their forces is their best chance. We've left a few guards at the other gates with some fast genin to carry messages just in case they try to take us by surprise." She had to be aware of it. She'd be blind – not to mention an idiot – not to be.

"This works out as well for us as for them," Shino said. "It will allow us to concentrate our numbers as well." He couldn't really be upset with her for it, though. What could she do about it, after all? Short of binding them anyway, which he'd heard was painful, and it would be a bit presumptuous to expect her to do a thing like that just because he and perhaps a few other men found her to be…distracting.

"I'm sorry, I'm still a little tired," Kiba said, when he realized she'd said something again. It was probably to Shino, but she was smirking, which made him nervous that she'd figured out why he really missed what she said.

"I was saying to your friend that you've certainly been quick to account yourselves as part of 'us'." Her smirk did not shrink. Maybe it was just for the friendly joke, but she was focused on him now.

"We're more than involved enough in this conflict by this point to consider ourselves tied to you in its outcome," Shino said coolly. Did the guy have a sense of humor at all?

"All right, you've made your point," Taki conceded. "Wait here and I'll go find out where we can use you in the defence." She vanished into the throng without another word, leaving Kiba and Shino to wait and see how far they would be trusted to help. The shinobi of the Grass certainly weren't stupid enough to deny aid when it was offered, but they weren't likely to entrust anything important to outsiders, either. What if they got cold feet and ran? They weren't defending their own home, after all. And Kiba would cut of his nose and eat it if their hosts weren't at least considering the possibility of treachery, even this late into the game.

"Are we under attack?" Hinata asked worriedly as she came hustling up to them. She was dressed in her usual bulky coat and baggy pants – that particular shy aspect of her personality hadn't changed at all.

"All signs point to it," Shino answered her. "We're to be told where to station ourselves momentarily."

"If they don't agree to ally themselves to us after this…" Kiba began, but he trailed off. There wasn't much he could do about it either way short of complaining.

"If they don't, it will probably be because they've been destroyed or been left too weak to risk any more confrontation," Shino said. "There's no guarantee of course, but they will likely agree to help us if we help them make it through this. Ironically, the best thing we could do to convince them to aid us is to die defending their village."

"I think I'll pass on that, thanks," Kiba responded dryly. "I'll take my chances with us surviving the fight for their village."

Hinata opened her mouth to say something, but whatever it was he would not find out, since Taki chose that moment to reappear. Dammit, even just walking made the bloody things bounce around like…

"You three will be with me on the north end of the wall," she said. "The brunt of their force is focused on the gate, with detachments extending to either side seemingly just to prevent us from flanking them. Our job will be to make sure they don't flank us."

"So there's going to be a sortie?" Kiba asked. It made sense, really. A ninja could do a lot more damage fighting directly than hurling projectiles. Very few shinobi were long-range specialists, after all.

"Yes," Taki said. "We hope to inflict as much damage to their forces as possible while incurring as little damage to the village as we can at the same time."

"Let's go, then," Kiba said. He shared a determined look and nod with Hinata, and a glance with Shino, and the three of them marched off after Taki.

"What about Sanjuro-sama?" Hinata asked.

"Oh lord, don't call him that," Taki groaned. "The last thing his ego needs is for someone to address him with 'sama'." Hinata blushed and stammered what might have been an apology. Taki waved it off. "Don't worry about it. As for him, he's going to be doing what he does best: hopping around wherever the fighting is hottest." She punctuated her statement by hopping herself – to the top of the village wall. Kiba's eyes popped. At his best he couldn't have leapt even half that height, and she'd done it with seemingly no effort at all with a speed that many shinobi would envy on the ground.

He and his teammates made their way up by way of rebounding back and forth off the message poles that were placed a few meters in from the wall itself. When they got to the top, Kiba couldn't contain his astonishment. Hinata looked ready to burst with it too. Shino, of course, looked as though she hadn't done anything more remarkable than strap on her sandals.

"How did you jump like that?" he asked, managing for a moment to completely forget the seriousness of the situation. "I've never seen anybody jump so high or so fast. I wouldn't have thought it was even possible!"

Her face still showing surprise, Hinata managed to nod weakly in agreement.

"It's just a skill, like anything else," Taki explained humbly. "It's one of my specialties, obtained from training under Sanjuro-sensei. Though even he can't do it as well as I can now."

"I'd be surprised if anyone could," Shino said calmly. "Very surprised." Right. And he'd probably show it by raising an eyebrow for a second or two.

"I know of one person who can," Taki said, "but that's got nothing to do with what we're supposed to be doing." Kiba forced his mind back to the task at hand, and looked out to see the daimyo's army approaching. Evidently they'd spent too much time talking on top of the wall, because there were a few archers taking aim at them.

"Look alive, arrows incoming," Kiba said briskly. Taki nodded without looking at him and jumped off the wall. Hinata followed her immediately, then Shino and himself. The three Leaf ninja slid along the vertical wall to slow their descent enough for safe landing. Even they risked injury in a free fall from that height.

When they hit the ground, Taki was already straightening from the crouch she'd deftly and silently landed in. Apparently whatever training she'd gone through that enabled her to go up so efficiently also let her take on greater heights when coming down. She hadn't done a thing to arrest her fall.

"Do we run out to meet them or wait for them to come to us?" Kiba asked. Even as he did, his chakra-enhanced hearing picked up another team landing to their right about fifty meters away. A pretty sparse flank. Maybe the Grass trusted them more than he'd thought. Or maybe they didn't have a choice.

"There are a few traps between us and them," Taki said. "We'll wait until they've all been tripped, then attack when the enemy is still reeling."

No sooner had she said that than a series of explosions burst up from ahead of them. Seemingly as one, the massive army changed from a slow advance to an all-out charge, yelling with enough ferocity to rouse the spirits of dead men.

The war cries were interspersed with screams of pain as tripwires were hit and traps sprung, preset kunai launched into the oncoming hoards and the earth gave way to pitfalls lined with wooden spikes. Through it all, the men kept coming. The army, the likes of which hadn't been necessary since well before the ninja clans united to form villages, marched forward over mounds of their own dead to take on that military forces that had replaced them. Had he been more philosophically-minded, Kiba would have found the very idea fascinating. As it was, he couldn't wait for them to pass the traps so he could actually _do_ something instead of just _sitting_ there watching them come at him.

As if reading his thoughts, Taki suddenly burst forward with a shout of "Now!" He followed her immediately, and saw Shino and Hinata do the same on either side of him. He was barely aware of the other team to their right doing the same. Like before, he plunged into the sea of flesh, armor and steel, ripping and clawing and killing every man he could get his hands on. He could see Hinata dancing through her _juuken_ forms, and Shino fighting with fist and swarm alike. He could see Taki, whirling those two tanto of hers around so fast they were only a blur, and slicing men to pieces as fast as the three of them combined. He saw her kick one man in the head and knock it clean off at such a speed that it actually hit another man in the face and killed him, too. Despite everything he'd seen before and everything that was going on around him, he had to hold back the urge to vomit and hope fervently that he was never on the receiving end of one of those kicks.

Unlike before, when there had only been several hundred soldiers to contend with, this time the entire force of twelve-thousand had descended upon them. Even with the whole village joining the battle they soon found themselves being pushed back.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," Kiba said as he slit yet another throat. There was no end in sight.

"Is that all the Leaf ninja are made of?" Taki taunted. Despite her confident words, she was drenched it sweat (and blood), and panting so hard her words were barely comprehensible. For that matter, Hinata looked as though she couldn't have said anything if she'd wanted to. Every last ounce of her breath was going into simply keeping herself on her feet.

"We have to fall back," Kiba said. There was nothing else for it.

"To where?" Taki shot at him. Her whirling tanto had slowed considerably, though she was still decapitating and dismembering faster than the rest of them. "If we move toward the center, they'll encircle us. If we make for the wall, they'll take us before we can get a third of the way up. There's no way I could jump up there now, let alone the rest of you."

"What do we do, then?" he demanded. Forget about himself; he wasn't going to let Hinata go out this way.

"We keep fighting!" Taki shouted. "We were never meant to defeat them here, only hold them. When their line is broken in the center, the rest will retreat."

That was all well and good for her to say, but how much longer was it going to take? He really didn't think…

A spear handle caught him at his feet and tripped him up. He rolled back with the fall and so was able to avoid a naginata blade aimed for his head, but a sword appeared and he had to shift in mid roll to avoid it. They were coming at him too quickly for him to get back up off the ground. Now that he wasn't killing them anymore the numbers around him were increasing instead of remaining constant as new foes filed in to replace the fallen. They were moving in to pin him so he couldn't even roll anymore – it was all he could do to squirm. He could hear Hinata yelling his name from somewhere to his left, but even before he saw the spear point coming for his heart he knew it was too late.

-

Every breath was a struggle as Taki moved from one soldier to the next, cutting them down as fast as she still could, yet more always came. It was one thing to tell that Leaf ninja that they had to hold, another thing entirely to actually pull it off.

Truth be told, the three Leaf shinobi had fought more bravely and with more fervor than she ever would have expected. She wasn't sure if she would have stayed to this point in their position, regardless of political consequences.

She heard the girl – Hinata was her name – shriek, and looked over expecting to see a sword run through her, but instead she saw a mass of soldiers swarming around something on the ground, and the one named Kiba was nowhere in sight. Taki felt a huge lump well up in her throat; she liked these Konoha ninja, and they shouldn't have to die defending someone else's village just because they happened to be there when it was attacked.

She knew it was too late to do anything – the guy had been on the ground far too long – but she tried anyway. Cutting a path with her tanto, she put every ounce of energy she had remaining in making it over to where he'd fallen. Before she made a third step, a blur of motion caught her eye. Something had darted into the air with alarming speed and was arcing back down with the same right into the milling mass of soldiers. Infantrymen began flying away from the spot until the same blur – much larger this time – shot back out of the throng and landed deftly outside the fighting not far from the village walls. Had they really been pushed back so far?

All this occurred in a matter of seconds, with Taki instinctively fending off any attacks that came at her while she watched. The blur streaked away again, this time toward Hinata, and she saw Kiba and his large dog lying motionless on the ground where it had left them. No, not motionless. The rapid rise and fall of their chests indicated they were still breathing, and quite laboriously. Whoever this new arrival was, she owed them her thanks, if she made it out alive. Just so long as they didn't presume to rescue _her._

-

Hinata watched in horror through her Byakkugan as Kiba went down and was swarmed by dozens upon dozens of soldiers. Screaming, she executed one of her strongest _kaiten_ ever – she hadn't even thought she had it in her for another one, much less one like that – and darted toward him. Almost immediately new enemies closed in to replace the ones she'd blown away. Desperately striking them down, she watched in disbelief as a man she didn't know whose hands appeared to be on fire dove into the crowd of soldiers and pulled Kiba out. Akamaru, too.

Her relief was so strong she nearly cried. Only slightly less so was her shock when the man appeared before her a few moments later and without so much as a word scooped her up and pulled her out of the fighting as well. She might have tried to kill him had she not just seen him save her teammate – and had she been able to lift so much as an arm.

Leaping out of the melee once more, the man landed near the village wall and deposited her next to Kiba, then set right back out. Scrambling on her hands and knees (now that she was out of the fight, she couldn't summon the strength to stand anymore), she frantically called out Kiba's name. She could see him breathing, but that didn't necessarily mean he was okay.

"Hinata?" he managed to gasp out. This time tears did come as relief washed over her. Even if only for the time being, Kiba was going to be all right.

She didn't have time to respond before their unknown rescuer appeared once more and set Shino down on his feet. The young Aburame looked as stoic as always, yet even without the Byakkugan her powers of insight told her he was not happy with being rescued.

"Are you three the only Leaf ninja here?" the stranger asked. Kiba affirmed that they were, and the man gave a satisfied nod.

"Taki-san!" Hinata remembered. "Please, you have to help Taki-san!" How could she have forgotten? The woman was alone out there now.

For some reason the man took on a somewhat wry expression. "That one isn't likely to accept any help," he said. "Particularly not from me. She'd as likely stick a kunai in me for trying as thank me. I suppose I can't leave her alone to die, though." He turned to go back to the battle. "It should be over soon though. For today, anyway. A few friends of yours are planning a nasty surprise at the enemy's rear, and an army typically retreats if they can when their rear is struck unexpectedly."

"Friends?" Kiba asked, still lying on the ground. Perhaps he was as unable to get up as she was.

"I assume they are, anyway. They were really worried about getting here in time to help you three."

"Who?" asked Shino. Odd for him to be so curious about such a thing, but it was exactly what she'd wanted to ask.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura," the man said. He then seemed to realize he was standing around talking instead of helping, because he quickly said "Gotta go!" and shot back into the fray.

A warm feeling started to flow through Hinata at his words. It was somewhat similar to the relief she'd felt a minute ago, but was different in a way she couldn't describe. "Naruto-kun is here?" she breathed.

"Guess we're safe, then," Kiba declared as if there were absolutely no doubt of the fact. There really wasn't – not to her, anyway. Strangely though, he didn't sound entirely happy about it.

-

The daimyo's army broke shortly after Naruto and his companions arrived. Inago, who could move the fastest of the three of them, insisted on being the one to pull Shino's team out of the fighting. Naruto took Sakura and they attacked the center of the enemy line from the rear. A dozen clones or so and a whirling maelstrom of shuriken from Sakura – he was going to have to ask where she learned that – was enough to convince the suddenly panicked soldiers that an army had descended on them from behind and that the only option was retreat. A gamble and a bluff on Naruto's part, but one that ended up paying great dividends.

Once the enemy had been forced into full retreat and a few Grass shinobi sent to harry them, the defenders reconvened inside the village walls and Naruto's team was given a warm reception. That's what he thought at first, anyway. Once he realized the three of them were standing a little apart from everybody else it was already too late. A very pretty woman with enormous breasts wearing a short green skirt and tunic came striding purposefully toward them. The look on her face said she was ready to pound nails with someone else's, and she was radiating unadulterated fury if not outright killing intent.

"Why you slimy, two-timing, no good swindler," she snarled. "You've got a lot of guts coming here after what you pulled."

Naruto's first reaction, of course, was to immediately think of anything he could ever have done to offend this woman. That proved unnecessary moments later when Inago raised his hands in a placating gesture and spoke to the woman in soothing tones. He should have noticed she wasn't focused on him.

"Aw, come on, Taki-chan…"

"DON'T!" she snapped violently, cutting him off with a threatening finger only inches from his face. "Don't you _dare_ call me that. How can you even have the nerve to show your face in this village?"

"Um, do you two know each other?" Kiba put in uncertainly. He seemed to finally be getting his breath back. Naruto caught Sakura rolling her eyes and had to suppress a chuckle; even he thought the question was unnecessary at this point.

Apparently the woman named Taki thought the same, for she spared Kiba a very derisive look before turning back to Inago. "Unfortunately," she said. "But it doesn't matter. Or it won't in a minute, anyway." She reached behind her back with her left hand and began easing a tanto from its sheath. Inago put up his hands again.

"Take it easy, Taki-ch…Taki. I didn't come here to fight you; I came to help. If you absolutely have to, you can try to kill me in the morning once you've had some rest and don't need to expend all your concentration on standing upright. I'm not going anywhere."

She considered his suggestion with a look that said she had a very bad taste in her mouth, then finally gave a reluctant nod and slid her tanto back into its sheath. "See that he doesn't," she snapped to two young Grass ninja standing nearby who didn't look like they could do anything about it either way. Still, they acknowledged the order and waited for her to leave before shooting apprehensive looks toward the Tree ninja.

"What was that about, Inago-san?" Sakura asked as most of the other Grass ninja dispersed. They were all casting furtive glances at Inago as well, and a few of them looked as though they wanted to attack him right there, but apparently it had been decided that this Taki woman had first dibs on him.

"I'll ah…tell you later," he said evasively. "Shouldn't you go talk to your friends?" Sakura raised an eyebrow at him – clearly she wasn't buying it anymore than Naruto was – but she humored him for the time being and moved to speak with Hinata and the others.

"Are you gonna be all right here?" Naruto asked his new friend. "They look like they want to kill you."

"The probably do," Inago replied with a touch of irony. "The ones who know me, anyway. The rest of them are probably just suspicious based on everyone else's behaviour. But they won't do anything until Taki does."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked sceptically. Some of those faces held more than just anger or suspicion – vile hatred was visible on more than one.

Inago gave a short, mirthless laugh. "As sure as I can be. I'm in it now; nothing else I can do about it."

"Why did you come here if you knew this was going to happen?"

Rather than saying anything, Inago gave him the kind of long-suffering look that said he had just asked an incredibly stupid question, though Naruto couldn't figure out why that might be. Why in the world would someone rush headlong into a village full of people who wanted to kill him?

-

Later that night found Naruto and Sakura placed in the room adjoining Team Shino's, while Inago was put in his own room down the hall under two chuunin guards. Sakura didn't really see the point in that. If he wanted to, Inago could easily slip past them or kill them. She'd tried to find out more of what was going on by asking Hinata what she knew about this Taki, but the Hyuuga girl had been just as baffled as her by the whole thing. It didn't help that the girl got flustered every time she remembered Naruto was in the room – being rescued by him seemed to have triggered a relapse of sorts in her behaviour – which annoyed Sakura to no end.

Hinata wasn't the only one affecting the mood. While Naruto was his usual exuberant self and immediately got into a conversation about something idiotic with Kiba, the latter was growing more and more surly as the evening wore on. Instead of laughing and responding to Naruto's crude jokes with his own, he would grumble something under his breath and eventually stopped responding to everyone altogether. It was almost a relief when she and Naruto retired to their own room to get some sleep. Almost.

The instant the connecting door shut it struck Sakura that she and Naruto were now sharing a room alone together. Multiple thoughts sprang up in her brain simultaneously, more that one threatening to make her blush – some in anger, some in embarrassment, and some in a way she couldn't describe.

Naruto didn't appear to think anything out of the ordinary was going on, or if he did he pretended not to. She had to thank him for that, at least. She decided to just follow his lead and ignore all the strange fancies still floating through her imagination. She'd almost stamped down the last of the butterflies in her stomach by the time she was ready to crawl into her futon, and probably would have succeeded entirely if Naruto hadn't ruined it.

"Sakura-chan," she heard his voice softly call from the futon next to hers. She gulped involuntarily. Naruto never said her name like that – like there was something deathly serious he needed to discuss. She could guess what it was – there was only one big thing that had been ignored by both of them since its initial occurrence that warranted that tone – but she hoped and prayed that wasn't it. She wasn't ready to talk about that yet. She didn't know if she ever would be.

She looked up at him and saw him studying her intently. Dreading what his answer would be, she forced herself to press forward. It was her own fault she was in this situation, after all.

"What is it?"

"I think…" he began awkwardly. "I really think we need to talk about…what happened when we escaped from the Snow." His eyes flashed as if ready to flinch, but he held his gaze steady. She almost winced. Did she really treat him so badly that he would be afraid of her like that, even now?

"I meant what I said, Naruto," she told him matter-of-factly and with much more confidence than she was currently feeling. No point trying to take it back; it would only hurt him, and it really was the truth. "What else is there to talk about?"

"Well, I mean," he stammered, "that's not something I normally get to hear. It's not something anybody gets to hear very often, I bet. And I know it's really hard to say it, even if you really want to. I mean, you've been my most precious person for years and I…" he cut off abruptly as he suddenly realized what he had said. Sakura herself felt as though she were choking on her tongue, and her eyes were popping out of her head, propelled by her heart exploding in her chest. This was certainly not something she had been expecting to hear. She was still catching her breath when Naruto spoke again, very tentatively.

"Sakura-chan?" He practically pleaded, hesitantly holding one hand out toward her. "I…I didn't…"

"Don't you dare say you didn't mean it, Naruto," she commanded fiercely. She could already feel the tears starting to form in her eyes. If he took it back…

"I meant it, Sakura-chan," he said in that comforting way that was so distinctly Naruto that she had to choke back a sob even as she smiled and released the tears she'd been holding at the same time. "I meant every word. I wouldn't lie about something like that."

"I know you wouldn't," she told him. "I'm sorry." Somehow she found herself pinned against him, with her arms trapped between herself and his chest as his embrace encircled her. She rested her head against his shoulder and let out a long breath she hadn't even been aware of holding.

"You know," he said in a much lighter tone, "you shouldn't really be surprised."

"Shouldn't I?" she asked, trying to sound amused. She also tried to turn to look at him, but didn't manage much beyond rolling her eyes upward.

"Well, who else would it be?" he joked. She opened her mouth to make a smart remark, but snapped it shut again when she realized the name she had been about to say would have been hurtful for both of them. Instead she just shrugged. Or tried to, confined as she was. It didn't bother her.

"Obviously I haven't done a good enough job showing just how much I care about you, Sakura-chan," he said. "I'll have to do better." She wasn't entirely sure he was joking anymore.

"Me too," she murmured.

Though none of her earlier flights of fancy came to pass – or even anything close to them – it was still well into the wee hours of the morning before either of them fell asleep. But it was a very contented, peaceful sleep.

-

Hinata was very distressed. She was embarrassed about the way she'd behaved around Naruto the night before – she'd gotten over such childish behaviour years ago, surely – but it was presently the least of her concerns. Once again she'd been roused from sleep to the news that something was happening out in the village. Thinking it was another attack, she'd thrown on her clothes and equipment and run to the village square as quickly as she could. What she found there was a shock, if not a surprise.

A huge ring of what could only be called spectators encircled the large green, including all her fellow Leaf ninja. In the center two shinobi stood poised on the edge of mortal combat. One she knew fairly well. Sorahana Taki had been nothing but friendly and helpful to her and her team since they arrived, and Hinata accounted her a very pleasant person. Only now murder and utter hatred adorned her otherwise pretty face. All of this malice was directed at one man, the other who stood at the center of attention: the Tree shinobi who had come with Naruto and Sakura. Hayashimi Inago, Sakura had said his name was. For his part, he looked as though he wanted nothing to do with the proceedings, and not for the seemingly obvious reason. No fear of death or injury was apparent in his expression, only reluctance and distaste. It was as if he felt sad that any of this had to happen, though why he should feel that way Hinata had no clue. Her powers of insight were not so great as her cousin's, but she knew enough to see that this man would rather subject himself to the most painful and humiliating punishments imaginable than take part in what was about to ensue.

"Please, Taki-ch…Taki," he was saying. Why had he winced upon correcting himself? "I don't want to fight."  
"You should have thought of that before you came here, you bastard," Taki snapped, drawing her left tanto so fast that Hinata thought it should have created a breeze.

"I only wanted to help," Inago said. "You don't think I knew what kind of reception I'd get? That's all I came for, Taki. I swear it."

"Even if I believed you, it doesn't change what happened before," the pony-tailed woman spat. "Time to die, Inago-kun." She leaped at him with such speed that Hinata was sure he'd be dead before he knew what hit him. "_Bakuhatsu no jutsu!"_ Taki cried, and a crackling of energy appeared in her hand. She thrust it out toward her target, but to Hinata's surprise he jumped backward with equal quickness and landed adroitly on a rooftop at the edge of the square just as the small explosion encompassed where he had been.

Taki was standing where he had just been, tanto extended to stab him through the heart. She looked up to where he now stood watching her impassively, cold hatred in her eyes. The intensity of her loathing made Hinata shudder. How could anyone abhor another person so strongly?

"Is that all you're going to do?" she chided. "Run away?"

"I told you; I don't want to fight."

"It doesn't matter what you want," she said. "If I kill you without you putting up a fight, it's murder and will lead to war between our villages. A war the Tree cannot win. However, if one of us dies in equal combat, it's just part of being shinobi. I know you don't want your village at war with us. Fight back!"

"Your village might not win against mine if you can't put an end to these attacks," Inago responded plainly.

"And you don't think we can?"

"Not if you waste your time on me."

"Enough!" She shouted, and leapt after him again. As before, he made his jump immediately afterwards, and turned over in the air so he was facing her upon landing back on the green. She wasted no time, and jumped after him as soon as she landed. He bounded off to the east, and she followed. Some of the people watching ran after them, but Hinata surreptitiously activated her Byakkugan. With it, she could even keep track of what they were saying by reading their lips, though it didn't look like they were doing much talking anymore.

Time after time Taki assaulted her opponent with one of those impossible jumps of hers, occasionally accompanied by a high-pitched shriek that could be heard all the way from the green, and time after time he evaded with a leap that was equally impressive. Hinata remembered Taki telling Kiba she knew of one person who could match her in jumping ability, and she had no doubt now about whom the woman had been speaking.

"What should we do?" Sakura asked anxiously. "They'll kill each other!"

"It's not like we can interfere," Kiba said. He was squinting, as though trying to see the fight that was now going on half a mile away. "We could never catch either of them, and even if we could, I don't think the rest of the Kusa-nin would let us." He was probably right about that. Most of the other people in the village had looked at Inago with only slightly less hatred than Taki, and any of them would probably jump right in if she failed to kill him. Moreover, they would probably go after any Konoha-nin who helped him just as fervently.

Shino said something then, but Hinata's focus was elsewhere and she didn't catch what it was.

"He's fighting back!" she yelled in surprise. All heads still in the square turned to her.

"Are you sure, Hinata?" Naruto asked. She nodded.

"He's defending himself, at least. He's drawn a kunai and is fending off her blows with it."

"Who's winning, Hinata?" asked Kiba.

"I can't say," she replied. "Taki-san is attacking with full force, but so far Inago-san has matched or dodged every blow."

"Are they still jumping around like a couple of bugs?" Kiba asked.

"What's wrong with that?" sounded the gruff voice of Kuwabatake Sanjuro, whose sudden appearance made everybody jump. Everyone except Hinata of course, who had seen him coming.

"Nothing!" Kiba declared a bit too virulently. "I was only curious!"

"Who's this old guy?" Naruto asked, indicating Sanjuro. Hinata winced. Despite all his strengths, Naruto-kun could be quite tactless at times.

Fortunately, the Mad Cicada didn't seem to take offence. In fact, he laughed.

"Just an old coot," he said, grinning at Naruto. "I happened to teach that girl who's fighting right now. My best pupil, in fact."

"This is Kuwabatake Sanjuro," Shino said to Naruto and Sakura. "The Mad Cicada of the Hidden Grass Village."

"Ha!" Sanjuro said. "The man who gave me that nickname was drunk, and even after I killed him for it, I was still stuck with it. Shame, too. He was a great shogi player."

"I can see where the 'mad' part comes from," Naruto whispered to Sakura, who giggled. Hinata did too.

"It's an honor to meet you, Sanjuro-san," Sakura said with a short bow. "My name is Haruno Sakura, and this is my captain, Uzumaki Naruto." She gave the blond in question a somewhat fond look that had more than a trace of exasperation in it as well.

Sanjuro's eyes flashed for the briefest instant upon hearing Naruto's name, and turned to the young man right away. It was so quick and so slight that Hinata doubted anyone without a Byakkugan would have noticed.

"No foolin'," the old man said as calmly as if he were airing out his socks. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet both of you as well." He returned Sakura's small bow.

"Etou…Sanjuro-san?" Sakura inquired. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What happened between Taki-san and Inago-san?"

"Hmm," the old man grumbled. "I don't think I should be the one to tell you that. It's really their business. Besides, he seems to be a friend of yours, and you should probably hear it from him anyway, if he wants to tell you."

"You don't hold whatever it is against him?" Sakura asked, sounding somewhat astonished.

"No, I don't," Sanjuro said. "Or rather, I can't. Not and call myself a ninja. I understand why she does, though. The rest of the village too, but her most of all."

Before anyone else had a chance to say anything, Hinata saw that the two combatants were rapidly making their way back to the green. "They're coming back!" she announced stridently. Everyone's attention turned to the two small figures slowly becoming larger who were still bounding twenty to thirty feet in the air, clashing blades, and dropping down only to repeat the dance the second their feet hit the ground.

"They're going to wear themselves out," Sanjuro said, shaking his head. "What good will that do anyone if the enemy comes?"

As if the old master's words had somehow summoned them, the soldiers of the daimyo's massive army suddenly appeared at the edge of Hinata's range of vision.

"They are!" she yelped. "They're coming now! I can see them!"

"You can?" Sanjuro asked pointedly. His had jerked to her at once. The attention of most everyone else on the green was still on the fight.

"Where are they coming from, Hinata?" Kiba asked.

"From the east, the same as before," she said. "The numbers don't add up, though. The army is not quite as big as it was, but with how many were killed yesterday, it's larger than it should be. I don't understand it."

"Reserves," Shino said. Sanjuro nodded agreement.

"They knew from the start they wouldn't be able to take us in one attack. They had some troops remain behind to replenish their numbers for the final strike."

"Can we be sure this is the final strike?" Sakura asked.

"It has to be," Sanjuro replied. "They couldn't afford to drag it out any longer than this."

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Naruto put in, pointing to Taki and Inago who were still locked in combat. Taki's high-pitched shrieks still occasionally punctured the ambient noise of the square full of watchers.

"If you think you can," Sanjuro said. "I have more important things to do. You five prepare yourselves as you see fit, but make sure at least someone coordinating the village defences knows where you're going to be. You've proven yourselves enough by now that they won't hesitate to count on you." With that, he vanished in a large puff of smoke, leaving the five Konoha shinobi gaping.

"Right," Naruto said in a very authoritative tone. "Shino, get your team to the east gate and make sure it's secure. Sakura-chan, you should go with them. I'll follow you in a minute."

Shino didn't even pause before nodding and motioning for Kiba and Hinata to follow him. Hinata released her Byakkugan and started after them, catching a few words exchanged between Naruto and Sakura.

"What are you going to do, Naruto?" the pink-haired kunoichi asked.

"I'm going to bring those two back to their senses," he answered. Hinata gulped, but couldn't hang around to hear any more. She hurried off after her team before they left her behind.

-

"How are you going to do that, Naruto?" Sakura asked. She had no doubt that he could – or would – but that didn't stop her from worrying. One of these days Naruto was going to get himself killed doing something brave, and every time he set off to do what he thought was right that feeling of mad panic would take hold of her again. This wasn't as bad as some of the other stunts he'd pulled, but her heart still pounded wildly in her chest just the same.

"I'm not sure yet," he said with a sheepish grin that made her want to hit him for being such an idiot. Did the moron never have a plan? "But I have to, so I will. You know me, Sakura-chan."

"I know," she told him with a fond smile that she couldn't quite suppress. "You never go back on your word. Baka."

"You should get going," he told her. She nodded, and hastily took off for the east gate before she could talk herself out of it.

-

Naruto tore his attention away from the girl rushing away from him and focused it back on the two ninja he was going to have to stop from killing each other. Two _jounin_ ninja, and exceptionally skilled even considering that. He wasn't entirely sure he could match either of them in a fight, let alone pull them out of one.

The word seemed to have spread rapidly about the impending attack, because the watchers were leaving the crowd in droves to arm themselves and take up defensive positions. Presumably, anyway. None of them made any attempt to halt the fight, though. He supposed he didn't blame them. It would be just as difficult for them as for him, and none of them really cared if Inago died anyway.

That thought put the fire of inspiration into him. He acted upon it immediately and transformed himself into his new friend from the Hidden Tree village. Not even waiting for the smoke of the jutsu to clear, he formed the next set of seals that resulted in a horde of kage bunshin swarming the village green. He started leaping around as Inago was doing, kunai drawn, making feints towards Taki. It would never fool her but if Inago caught on…

_Yes!_ Naruto cheered in his head. Inago had indeed worked out his plan and had drastically reduced his jumps to match what Naruto was capable of. A bit of creative bounding around and he was lost in the throng. Naruto could tell the instant Taki lost track of her target, because her eyes turned from burning anger to desperation and…despair? That didn't seem to make sense, but he'd worry about it later.

"Why are you helping him?" Taki demanded angrily, shouting into the crowd of clones that all looked like her greatest nemesis.

"Because he's my friend," Naruto answered. The clone who had spoken wound up with a kunai through his skull that he hadn't bothered trying to dodge. "But that's not important," he continued. Another dead clone. Was she going for the process of elimination? She'd run out of kunai first. "The village is under attack again, and you two aren't doing anybody any good here." This time there was no kunai, but she didn't look ready to back down, either.

"He's not doing anybody any good anywhere," she snarled fiercely. "And the village can handle itself without me for however long it takes me to kill him."

Naruto didn't get a chance to respond. He saw Inago rise up from behind Taki, and for one horrible second he thought he'd been mistaken in his assumptions, but all the man did was place his arms around her from behind. It almost looked like an embrace, though her arms were pinned to her side. A moment later she was a crate, but to Naruto's great shock Inago followed suit. He lost track of them for a few seconds until he heard a frantic wailing cry coming from the roof of a nearby building. Inago must have performed _kawarimi_ right on top of her in order to still be holding on to her like that. Naruto had never seen anyone manage that before.

Taki was writhing and kicking, clearly in terror of whatever she thought Inago was going to do to her. Naruto dispersed all his clones and made a dash for the roof, but he wasn't even halfway there when he realized it wasn't necessary. It looked like his initial assessment had been right after all.

Inago, for his part, was holding her just tight enough so that she couldn't get away, and was otherwise doing nothing at all. Except for the flush of his recent exertion, his face looked completely at ease. Naruto was sure this was a situation Taki would normally be able to get out of, and was sure Inago knew it too, but the woman seemed completely taken by panic. What _had_ happened between the two of them?

"Let go of me!" Taki howled frantically. Her kicking and struggling stepped up. "Let go, let go let go!" She tried to twist in his grip to attack him, but he moved with her and she didn't end up accomplishing anything. Tears were welling up in her eyes and she was starting to sob. Naruto looked on in utter awe and disbelief. Was this the same powerfully confident woman he'd seen before?

"Let go! Please, let me go!" Abruptly she came loose from his grip and very ungracefully fell on her rear end. As Naruto watched on tenterhooks, waiting for the fight to start again, she looked up at Inago in shock while unconsciously rubbing her bottom. Inago returned her gaze with an emotion Naruto couldn't recognize. If he didn't know better, he'd say it was sadness.

"What did you do that for?" she asked indignantly.

"Because you asked me to," Inago answered gently. Taki glared at him as though he'd just insulted her in the vilest way possible as she made her way to her feet. She was rapidly regaining her composure.

"Don't even start trying to pull that shit on me," she spat. "You're still as good as dead, and so is that Leaf ninja who came with you. That was a dirty trick."

"He did it to help, Taki-chan," Inago said. She gave him a very dirty look for the honorific, but didn't say anything. "That's what he came for. It's what I came for. Please just let us help and then we'll leave. You'll never have to see us again."

"Oh please," she sneered. "Even if I wanted to believe that, why did he step into the fight on your side?"

"Because I knew he wouldn't kill you," Naruto spoke up finally, making the final leap to the roof to join them. "It was clear right from the start that Inago didn't want to hurt you. All I had to do was make you stop going after him, and he'd stop fighting on his own. If I'd tried to stop him instead, you'd have killed him."

There was a long pause, and then Taki finally asked, "Why are you so eager to help us? Your friends, too. Even before you got here they made it clear they were willing to go all out to help protect our village. Are all Leaf ninja like that?"

"Well, not really," Naruto admitted, scratching the back of his head. "There are some ninja in Konoha who won't help anybody unless there's something in it for them. But my friends aren't like that. It doesn't surprise me that they decided to help you. And as for me, when I left the Hidden Tree village and when I got here, I said I would help protect this village with everything I have. And I never go back on my word."

Inago was grinning at him, and Taki was giving him a very odd look. "You sure are a rare breed," she said. "If you're telling the truth, that is."

"If you don't believe me, come with me to the east gate and I'll prove it to you. I'll fight as hard as any Grass nin to protect this village. Harder. And I won't stop until the enemy is completely destroyed. That's a promise." He gave her one of Gai's "nice guy" poses. He found he rather liked those, however eccentric the man seemed to be regarding just about everything else.

"All right," she said with a decisive nod. "Let's go. But _he,_" she indicated Inago, "doesn't leave my sight. Understood?"

"I was going to insist on it," Inago said. She gave him one last scathing look before setting out across the rooftops toward the east gate.

-

Sakura watched as the seemingly endless mass of flesh and steel made its way over the grass-covered plains toward the village. Standing on top of the wall as she was, she could see the front lines of their ranks quite clearly, though it would likely still be another two or three minutes before they were within striking distance. Naruto still hadn't arrived.

She nervously fingered the kunai she'd drawn, wondering how much use she'd get out of it. Surely her shuriken techniques would serve her better against so many foes. It was all the evasion training with Tsunade that got her thinking about coming up with them. As her master explained, it was important above all else for a medic-nin to not be injured in battle, lest he or she be rendered unable to offer aid to comrades. But what good was avoiding damage if she couldn't inflict any in return? Her physical power was coming along tremendously, but if her only ace in the hole was to punch things she would eventually find herself at a severe disadvantage. Even the occasional genjutsu lesson with Kurenai only helped to drive home the point that she would eventually need to be able to finish off her enemies, and the more options she had at her disposal with which to do that, the better off she would be.

The genjutsu proved to be the key. She combined a minor genjutsu with a rain of shuriken to give the impression of a windblown batch of sakura petals – never let it be said that she didn't have a taste for poetic irony. She could even control them with her chakra to a certain extent, allowing them to track an opponent for a short duration, provided the opponent was not exceptionally nimble. It had already proven to be an effective addition to her arsenal, and she was quite proud of it. How many of these soldiers would she be able to take out with it today before she ran out of shuriken?

She heard Hinata say that Naruto was coming with Inago and Taki, and let out a sigh of relief. At least that was one potential crisis she didn't have to worry about anymore. A few seconds later, all three of them arrived on the wall amidst the Konoha ninja already there.

"What's the situation?" Inago asked.

"They're about one minute out," Kiba said.

"Where is Sanjuro-sensei?" Taki asked, looking around.

"We're not sure," Kiba replied. "But whatever he's doing, it's gotta be important, right?"

"Incoming!" came a shout from below. Sakura looked to see a veritable cloud of arrows arcing across the sky toward them. The vast majority of them would fall short, she could tell, but a few of them might travel far enough, though they would be simple enough to dodge.

"Attack!" yelled the commander on the ground. Between eighty and ninety shinobi rushed forward to meet the thousands of men marching toward them.

"Flanking positions!" cried the commander on the wall. Sakura leapt with the rest of her party and a large contingent of Grass ninja toward the north, while an equal number did the same to the south. The battle was on.

-

From a tree at the edge of the woods some way off from Kusagakure no Sato, a tall and imposing figure watched the carnage unfold with an expression of amused interest.

"Now we find out if all of Zetsu-san's planning bears fruit," he said to his shorter companion in a gruff but mild voice. "It'd be a shame if he went through all that with the daimyo and the Jinchuuriki didn't show up."

His counterpart offered a small, non-verbal reply, as was characteristic of him.

The tall man smiled wider, his pointed teeth amplifying his already frightening visage. "Are you upset that I'm capturing my Jinchuuriki first? I wouldn't have thought you would take such things so personally, Itachi-san."

-

Sakura whirled from one soldier to the next. She'd used up almost all of her shuriken; she had just enough left for one more attack, and she wanted to hang on to that until she was completely without options. She'd stolen naginata from one of the enemy troops and was using it to cut them down as much as she was to deflect their blows. She was unaccustomed to using such a weapon, but in her current situation it was much easier than fighting unarmed.

Naruto fought next to her – or at least one of him did. He'd made a clone for her and everyone on Shino's team, as well as one for Inago and one for Taki. He said it was so he'd be able to help if anything happened. She was too occupied to argue the point, but she wasn't sure she would want to anyway. It was reassuring in a way to have him there.

A loud cry racked the air from back toward the village, and she looked to see a giant grasshopper leaping over the wall at a height and speed that would make even Taki and Inago dizzy. It landed with a crash among the enemy army, and its rider began swinging an extremely long-hafted spear with a wide blade with almost reckless abandon. Even if she couldn't see his face, she knew it must be Kuwabatake Sanjuro.

"What took you so long?" she heard Taki call to the old man.

"I was taking care of something. You'll thank me shortly," was the reply. Taki was clearly as confused as Sakura was, but a few minutes later their questions were answered. The earth rumbled underneath the daimyo's army and enormous fireballs rained down on them. Before the previous attacks even began to dissipate, streaks of electricity shot through the enemy ranks, and Sakura saw an older-looking man with swept back grey hair breaking for them. Breaking for Sanjuro, really.

"He's made it," Sanjuro said in a satisfied tone.

"Sensei, who is…?" Taki began, but Naruto broke in.

"He's…I don't believe it, he's…!"

"He's my brother, Kuwabatake Toshirou," Sanjuro said. "And you've got the measure of him, kid. The folks of the village aren't exactly his best friends, but even they'll be glad to see him today."

Sakura couldn't think what Naruto had discovered about the man who she now saw had a slightly long face with large ears and a wide black tattoo or something across his nose. She saw him wave to hail his brother, and right in the process be swept away by a rushing river of foaming white water from nowhere.

"What!" Sanjuro shouted. He made to jump to where his brother had just been, but was accosted by a frantic Grass-nin who came running up to him in a state.

"Sanjuro-sama!" the man yelled. "We have enemy troops to the south! They're moving unimpeded toward the village, and they appear to be made up entirely of samurai, cavalry and Thorn shinobi!"

"It's a trap!" Sanjuro howled. "Everyone get over there now!"

"But what about these?" Taki yelled to him even as she sliced the head off a soldier. "They'll overrun the village too if unchecked!"

"I can handle them for myself for the time being," the old man said. Taki's eyes went wide.

"There's no way! Sensei, even you can't hold off so many!"

"Toshirou can help as soon as he's gotten himself out of whatever fix he's in," Sanjuro said sternly. "The two of us will be enough to keep this rabble under control until you can afford to send reinforcements. Now go!"

Taki looked reluctant, but followed his orders. Inago followed immediately afterward. Sanjuro looked to Naruto, and to Shino, who had made his way to the old man's side as well.

"I can't tell either of you what to do, but I'd ask you to go with them," he said. "The force to the south is a much greater threat, and need to be dealt with first. Even a tired shinobi can deal with foot soldiers, but you're less likely to come out on top against a samurai or another shinobi if you've been fighting this trash all day."

"We'll go," Naruto said, "but I'm not leaving you here by yourself. _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_" Around twenty Naruto clones popped up and created a perimeter around the giant grasshopper and its rider. Naruto grinned cheekily.

"Thanks, kid," Sanjuro said. "I hope my brother gets a chance to meet you."

Naruto didn't answer, but he nodded, and then motioned to her and the rest of them to follow him, leaving Sanjuro and twenty clones to face the insurmountable horde.

-

Taki took a brief moment to wipe her sweat-drenched bangs away from her eyes. It proved to be almost fatal. She had only a split second to dodge the attacking samurai's katana before it sliced through her neck. She planted a tanto in his gut and moved on.

Things were looking very grim. She didn't know how long the fighting had been going on, but no matter how many enemies they dropped they still remained outnumbered. In the last few minutes she had seen no fewer than seven of her comrades fall. They were even falling to the samurai and the mounted troops now. The reserve guard had finally approved the sending the village's genin in to fight – a decision that had bolstered their numbers and provided them with a short-lived second wind – but even that proved insufficient to turn the tide.

Interestingly enough, the genin were faring as well as or better than many of their more skilled an experienced counterparts since they were still fresh. She hadn't seen any of them fall yet, anyway, and she even came upon a group of three who'd managed to take down one of the Thorn shinobi that dotted the enemies' ranks.

One of those same Thorn-nin appeared now to her left. She saw him just in time to block his strike with her left tanto – at her best she would have killed him before he knew she'd seen him – and had to dodge via leaping over him when he tried to sweep her legs. The fight with Inago had definitely taken its toll; she was nearly exhausted already when the battle had begun, and now it was only her will that was even keeping her on her feet. If she survived, she would no doubt suffer from chakra exhaustion.

He came at her again, and even as she raised her arms to defend, she knew it wasn't going to be fast enough. The kunai was going between her eyes when in a flash of red, she saw it had passed through Inago's throat instead. The idiot had jumped in front of her! She let out a strangled scream, but before the drops of blood that landed on her even had time to sink in, he was gone in a puff of smoke and replaced by a large rock. The Toge-nin had time enough to register his shock before dozens of senbon poked out from the boulder on all sides, and his arm was punctured by several of them. It looked like he'd tried to stab a big brown cactus.

"This is our technique!" he cried. "How did you –"

He was cut off as Inago's kunai got him in the back of the throat. In the three seconds it took for this all to transpire, Taki had stood transfixed, the false blood still staining her arms and bits of her clothing. Inago took a step toward her, but she didn't manage to react until he spoke.

"Are you all right?" he said. He sounded far more concerned than he had the right to.

"Of course I am," she said, unable to inject as much venom into the statement as she'd wanted. "Why did you do that?" The enemy troops around them were giving them a small berth. They always did whenever they saw one of their shinobi allies felled. They'd be back on the attack soon enough, though.

Inago was giving her a very weary look. "That's a really stupid question, Taki-chan," he said.

"I told you never to call me that again," she said. There was no bite in it anymore. She didn't have any left, for him or anyone. "And why are you still here? There can't possibly be anything for you to gain from this."

"You think I came here for such a selfish reason as that?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course," she told him bluntly. "Everything you do is for a selfish reason."

"That may be true," he conceded. "But not in the way you think. Taki-chan, when I came here with Naruto-kun and Sakura-san, I knew it was possible I wouldn't leave alive." She raised her eyebrows, but he held up a hand to forestall her. "Oh, I didn't plan on dying, but I knew that if I did, it would be either by your hand or by your side. There's no other way for me to go – there never has been – and I wouldn't choose one if I could."

Taki felt a burning sensation in her eyes, and in her chest. Dammit, but she wanted to hate him! She wanted to so much! She had almost figured out what she was going to say when he jerked into motion suddenly.

"They're coming again!" he said. And they were. A dozen samurai surrounded them with swords drawn. She pulled up her paired swords and stood ready.

"I can last as long as you," she said to him grimly, placing her back to his.

"It better be longer," he replied. She had her witty retort ready when a swath of air abruptly cut through three of her foes. Another swath came a second later and took out two more. She felt Inago turn behind her to look.

"Motoko-chan?" he muttered, clearly nonplussed. Taki turned her gaze to follow his and saw an oddly-dressed young woman racing toward them. She was wearing colourful baggy trousers with the left leg longer than the right, and a loose-fitting top with her breasts bound underneath. She was fairly tall and had long, lustrous black hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wielding a wooden sword.

Just as she was beginning to grasp this new development, she heard several more men call out their death rattles behind her. She spun and saw a young man with glasses sheathing what looked like a kodachi beneath a brown trench coat.

"When we saw the battle going on, we were worried we wouldn't get to you in time, Inago-kun," the newcomer said.

"We would have been faster if you weren't such a weakling, Morisato," the woman (girl?) called Motoko said, stepping into the circle that had once again formed around them.

"Keitaro? Motoko?" Inago queried. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think we're doing here?" Motoko asked in a tone that somehow managed to sound respectful and annoyed at the same time. "We came to help you."

"Did the elders send you?" Inago asked.

"No," said Keitaro, "but they might have eventually. We just didn't want to wait any longer."

"Just you two?" Inago questioned. "I mean, I appreciate it, but I wouldn't expect you in particular, Motoko-chan, to come running to my rescue."

"No, it's not just us," she said, turning her face away. "As if I could stand to make the journey alone with this idiot. My brothers also came, as did Kamotomo Akiko."

Inago's expression turned wry. "I should have expected her to come if anyone did," he said. He shot Taki a nervous glance for some reason.

"I don't know how effective just the six of us are going to be, to tell the truth," Motoko said, swatting down an approaching samurai with her bokutou without even turning to look at him. Taki saw Keitaro do the same to two more behind him with his kodachi.

"You might be just enough to put us over the edge, actually," Inago said. "It's been almost a stalemate all day; the six of you fresh could tip the scales. Where are the others?"

"They went after those Leaf friends of yours. Apparently they know that Sakura girl," Keitaro said.

"Akiko came with us, but got sidetracked," Motoko said. "I expect she'll be along." Two more enemies went down without her ever taking her focus off the conversation.

"Here she is," Keitaro announced, pointing. His kodachi was bloody yet again. "And your brothers too, Motoko-chan."

Sure enough, three men dressed in black and each carrying a different weapon made of wood came bounding up to them with Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura in tow. From a slightly different direction approached a pretty young girl with a long blonde ponytail and an ample bosom. She was dressed predominately in shades of yellow in what appeared to be a halter top and a skirt. She also wore an imitation of a coat that didn't reach halfway down her torso or her arms. The skirt stopped well short of her knees. She looked – perky, if that could be said of anyone in the midst of a battle. She bounded right up to Inago and hugged him.

"I knew you'd be all right, Inago-kun!" she declared. Inago returned her hug haggardly, and shot Taki another of those anxious looks. A surge of irritation ran through her when she realized what that was about and she didn't know whether to laugh derisively or to hit him. Was he _serious_?

"Inago, we've got a problem," the blond Konoha nin announced. "Another one of my clones was just dispatched. That means there's only three more, and Sanjuro-san's brother hasn't come back yet. He's almost as tired as we are. Taki felt a jolt of panic and felt energy surge through her.

"We have to help him!" she cried. She made to take off, but Inago held her back.

"There's nothing you could do for him by yourself, and if all of us go it will doom everyone over here," he said sadly.

"I can't just leave him!" she wailed, throwing his hand off her shoulder. She was barely noticing anymore how the six Tree shinobi around them were now almost constantly batting enemies away, allowing them to talk without interruption.

"I'll go with you, then," he said. "Keitaro, Shaku, make sure you target the enemy ninja first. You six are our best chance of eliminating them."

"Understood," said the two men addressed.

"Inago-san, you'll be killed too!" Sakura protested.

Taki saw Inago glance at her from the corner of his eye. "Probably," he said. "But it will be the way I'm supposed to go."

"What does that even mean?" the girl called Akiko objected. Taki hadn't even seen her take hold of him again.

"That's enough," Uzumaki Naruto declared. There was a strange glint in his eyes. They were now as much red-orange as blue. "I'll take care of it."

"Naruto…" Sakura started, but he waved her off.

"Not this time, Sakura-chan," he said. His voice was somehow a little deeper, too. "We can argue about it after I get back if you want. That's a promise." He did that thumbs-up pose again. It was really corny, but you couldn't help trusting him when he did that.

"_Kage bunshin no jutsu,"_ he said, making two clones. "These two will stay here and help you guys. I'll see you later." Without another word he was off. Taki wondered if she'd ever see him again – and she wasn't sure whether she was thinking more about him dying or herself.

-

Sanjuro whirled his staff around, fending off the soldiers that still seemed to come at him without end. Batta-kuri, his mount, was nearly out of chakra and would disperse soon. The shadow clones that kid left behind had been reduced to only two, and both of them were about to go as well. Frankly, he'd been surprised they'd lasted as long as they had. From what he knew of the kage bunshin, each clone had a finite amount of chakra given to them when created, and would disappear when it ran out. But all of the clones here had been using all sorts of ninjutsu, and fighting as hard as – if not harder – than he himself. It was enough to wear out even a normal person who was capable of generating new chakra, and the kid had made twenty of them! It really was a shame Toshirou would never meet him.

The thought of his older brother brought a wave of despair that he had to beat back; he couldn't afford that in a battle. Some time ago, he'd felt a surge of chakra that could only mean his brother had called upon the strength of the demon inside him to fight whoever it was he was fighting, and not long after that the energy had vanished completely. He was not sure if his brother was dead or merely captured, but he knew it was likely he'd never see him again. The guilt he felt was almost as strong as the grief – he was the one who'd brought Toshirou here, after all. Called him into what Sanjuro no longer doubted was a trap made specifically for him. Who had set the trap, or how it was even possible he did not know, but it was too convenient for the Shibi Jinchuuriki to be swept away by a high-level suiton jutsu mere moments after joining the fray by an enemy who until that point and since had remained undetected. If he ever got out of this, he would track down whoever it was who ambushed his brother and pay them back a thousand times.

It took a few moments for him to notice that the soldiers had stopped trying to get to him. In fact, they seemed to be fleeing. Had the others routed the enemies' southern force and returned to put an end to it all? He turned, hope once again bubbling in his gut, but what he saw was not what he had expected, nor would he have even thought it possible.

Blond figures in orange and black – two, three, four hundred of them, maybe more – were crashing into the daimyo's army in a tsunami of flesh and steel. Some were running across the grass field matted with blood, others were leaping through the air. They let out a furious cry, seemingly as one, as they tore through the combatants before them as they would through a field of straw men.

As they came nearer to him, Sanjuro could see that each of the clones had more pronounced features than the boy he recalled. Their hair was standing up straighter, the marks on their face more pronounced. Their teeth were longer and slightly pointed, and their eyes were a violent red rather than their usual vibrant blue. It appeared the boy really was a Jinchuuriki after all. He'd suspected as much – the name sounded familiar, from an old intelligence operation, and the way he'd reacted to Toshirou, as though to a kindred spirit. Plus there was just something about him, an aura that Sanjuro suspected only someone with highly attuned senses who'd grown up around a Jinchuuriki would recognize.

"You all right, old geezer?" One of them asked, appearing in front of him on Batta-kuri's back. It was probably the real one.

"Watch who you're calling geezer, kid," Sanjuro quipped. He couldn't help but smile, though.

"I probably should have done this before," the kid said, looking ashamed.

"Don't beat yourself up, kid. Tapping into that power can't be pleasant, and it wouldn't be healthy or wise for you to jump right to it every time without trying every other option first."

Naruto looked shaken, his eyes wide and mouth fumbling for a response. "You knew?"

"I had a feeling," Sanjuro said. "My brother was the same." He couldn't keep the note of sadness from his voice at that.

"I know," Naruto replied, reflecting his sadness. "I think I know what happened to him. When this is over, I'll tell you about it."

"Can you handle them all yourself?"

The kid flashed an almost feral grin. "Easy." He leapt off Batta-kuri's back, and while he was in the air he formed a seal and shouted _"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_ Hundreds more of him appeared and rained down on the astonished and tired men below. He moved through them like they were nothing at all, cutting them down with absolutely no effort. They'd given up trying to fight the clones; every man was in full retreat mode now, most having thrown down their arms in an attempt to flee faster. He kept up his assault for a few minutes, and then pulled his clones back and let what was left run away.

"They could come back, you know," Sanjuro warned.

"I doubt it," the blond replied, reappearing at his side. "There aren't enough of them left to threaten the village. Killing them now when all they want to do is get away would be pointless." He tilted his head. "How much longer can your summon stay here?"

"Not much. He's about out of chakra. So am I, come to that."

Naruto nodded. "You should go back to the village. I can't hold on to this many clones for long, but I should be able to do it long enough to help the others." He didn't give Sanjuro a chance to object before he and his horde were off again, heading south.

-

Sakura was at the end of her rope. Both of Naruto's clones had long since been dispatched, and it was only due to sticking close to Taki and Inago that she was even still alive. She had no idea where Kiba, Shino or Hinata were, or if they were alive. She didn't know anything except that she had to defeat the opponent she was facing off against. Then the next one, and the next. She couldn't go on.

A heartbeat away from giving up, she felt a tremor in the earth beneath her feet. Her initial inclination was that she was being ambushed by an enemy jutsu, but the tremor remained constant and nothing else happened. Then she heard a deep rumbling sound, growing slowly louder. She turned to see what was causing it and very nearly passed out in relief and joy. A veritable flood of Naruto's clones was bearing down on the battle, carving deep into the enemy mass. More and more of them seemed to keep popping up, leaping over their counterparts to reach deeper and deeper into the fray. The daimyo's army, already tired and worn from an entire morning of fighting, couldn't handle the blow. Almost right away they began to break, panic and confusion overtaking them. If there were any shinobi left among them, they were just as ill-equipped as the rest for this new development, because she didn't see any of the clones taken out by ninjutsu. For that matter, the clones were beginning to perform ninjutsu of their own. Dozens of rasengan, fireballs, water spurts and small whirlwinds popped up everywhere. Kunai and shuriken flew like sand in a gale. In minutes Naruto had managed to swallow nearly all of the opposing army, routing the rest and sending them running as fast as their legs or horses could carry them.

As suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The clones began to dispel a few at a time. Five here, three there, until none of them were left. The few enemies remaining had been detained by Grass ninja, and Naruto himself collapsed to his knees not fifty feet from her.

"Naruto!" she called, running over to him as fast as she could manage.

"Stop, Sakura-chan!" he yelled in a much more gravely voice than normal, holding up a hand to forestall her. "Don't…don't come near me just yet. Let me make sure I can…_aaagh!"_ He cried out in pain and twisted his neck around, and wind started to swirl up around him. She wasn't sure what was happening, but she felt goose bumps form along her arms. She took a step closer and the wind flared up.

"Stay away!" he bellowed. His voice was even deeper and harsher this time. "Please, Sakura-chan. Don't come any closer until I can control it!" She didn't know what he was talking about, but she was growing frightened. What was happening to him? Had he done something to himself? Come to think of it, he had to have, to be able to create that many clones after fighting for as long as he had. Was this the side effect? Would he be okay? She couldn't get close enough to examine him, and he didn't want her to out of concern for her safety. Any other time she would have done it anyway, but concern for her safety would be valid now even if she were doing no more than her laundry. She could barely stand, let alone protect herself from whatever Naruto was afraid would happen to her. But he was in pain…

Kuwabatake Sanjuro appeared next to him, and her teammate let out an almost bestial roar that made her shiver to the base of her spine. Visible chakra started to emit from all points on his body – _red_ chakra. She'd seen that before, when he fought Neji in their first chuunin exams. Then too he had managed to call on an enormous chakra reserve when he should not have had any. Did he go too far this time?

"Fool!" Sanjuro accosted. "Don't you have any way to contain it?"

"Pouch…left shoulder…" Naruto growled. The agony that bled though in his voice tore through Sakura as if she were experiencing it herself. She saw Sanjuro reach into the pouch that Naruto mentioned. Naruto started to take a swipe at the man but visibly restrained himself. A moment later the man pulled out a small piece of paper, looked at it, gave a satisfied nod and slapped it onto Naruto's forehead. Instantly the whirlwind ceased, the red chakra disappeared, and Naruto closed his eyes and slumped over onto the ground. Sakura bolted for him as fast as she could.

"Is he okay?" she asked, pleading with her voice for a favourable answer.

"He will be now," the old man said wearily. "He won't wake up for a few minutes, though."

"What happened to him?" she asked. Sanjuro gave her an odd look with a raised eyebrow.

"Wouldn't have thought insecurity would be a factor for this one," he said cryptically. Whether he was talking to her or himself she wasn't sure, but it didn't make any sense either way. The old man shook his head and turned his attention back to Naruto. "He just let himself get a little carried away is all," he said.

"Sensei!" came a distinctly feminine shout from behind. Sakura whirled around to see Sorahana Taki half running, half hobbling over to them. Inago was close at her heels, moving in much the same fashion.

"That was incredible!" Inago exclaimed once they'd arrived, looking at Naruto. "How did he do that?"

"Why didn't he do it right from the start?" Taki asked. Maybe it was Sakura's imagination, but the question seemed somewhat accusatory. She shot the woman a venomous glare.

"He couldn't," Sanjuro said. "Or rather, he was wise not to. This sort of last resort is not to be called upon lightly. You should know that, Taki-chan." The woman had the grace to look abashed. "As it is, he could have killed himself – or worse." He shifted his focus to Sakura for just a moment, and she shuddered. Could Naruto really have…?

No. She refused to believe it, even though he himself seemed to have been afraid of it. She would never let herself be afraid of Naruto. He deserved better than that. That didn't stop her from being afraid _for_ him, though. If this is what happened to him when he performed…whatever kinjutsu it was he performed…then she was just going to have to make sure he never did it again. If that meant she had to resort to pleading, then so be it.

"We should get back inside," Sanjuro said, standing up with Naruto in his arms. "This kid's not the only one who needs medical attention. I could go for a bit myself. Taki, make sure a detail is assigned to collect the wounded and the dead." He walked off toward the gate without another word.

"I can help with that," Inago said and started to walk back to the battlefield.

"What!" Taki exclaimed, grabbing his arm. "Don't be stupid, you can barely stand!"

"I have enough left in me for this, Taki-chan," he said.

"Stubborn fool," she grumbled. "Fine. Have it your way, then. Let's go." The two of them left, leaving Sakura there to wonder what she could do. Her medical knowledge could be of help, but she could barely stand herself. And Naruto…

Her decision made, Sakura stumbled off after Sanjuro.

-

"It looks like Zetsu-san's plan wasn't a complete success," remarked Hoshigaki Kisame with a smirk. He was observing the aftermath of the battle, and the Grass ninja regrouping themselves back into the village. Kuwabatake Toshirou, the Shibi Jinchuuriki, was draped over his sword Samehada, unconscious and bloody.

"All that matters is that your target was acquired," intoned his partner, Uchiha Itachi. "It's time to go, Kisame."

"Aa, aa," The shark-like man agreed. "It's too bad about that Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Itachi-san," he said. "Wouldn't it have been nice to return with two of them?" Even if they had felt like exposing themselves, it would have been difficult to reach the kid through all those Grass ninja, even exhausted as they were. They weren't about to give up their saviour so easily. Itachi shot him a look that made him raise his hands up in a gesture of truce. He began following after his stoic partner.

"Still," he said, shooting one last look over his shoulder at the site of the battle, "that was pretty impressive. They'll be calling him the One Man Army of Konoha after this."

And with that, the two operatives of the organization known as Akatsuki faded into the mist.

- - -

Well, that's it. Though it didn't end up quite as long as I'd initially anticipated, this one just kept going and going and going. I hope the parts where they were fighting the army didn't get too repetitive. It's hard to be creative about just cutting down a bunch of non-shinobi who just keep coming. Yawn.

As always, my prereader HitokiriOTD was of tremendous help. You should all thank him.

And of course, I would ask you to leave a review and let me know what you thought, even if you didn't like it. But especially if you did. People adding it to their favourites or alert lists without leaving a review makes me a saaaad panda.

Translations follow:

Bakuhatsu no jutsu – Explosion technique

Kinjutsu – forbidden technique

MANGA SPOILER ALERT!

You may have noticed that I like to take certain parts of the manga for inspiration or actual story elements. In some rare cases this is because I already had an idea along the same lines that I was going to use anyway. Sometimes it's because it involves something I hadn't thought of and will work well within the continuity of my story. Other times it's because an aspect of canon – Pein's identity being the most obvious example – is revealed that was a complete mystery before, and it just makes more sense to use the canon aspect rather than make one up.

There are a few things I will not be using. You may have noticed Sai hasn't shown up. Does this mean he won't appear at all? Not necessarily. But if he does, I won't have him joining Naruto and Sakura's team and becoming best buddies with them all of a sudden. Another thing I won't be using is Itachi's backstory. I actually did have an idea about Itachi's motivations that was somewhat similar, but I don't know if I want to use it now. And copying the manga exactly would make me feel like a hack. So for the time being at least, you're going to have to keep imagining Itachi – in my universe, anyway – as a bad guy.

END SPOILERS


	7. Episode VI: Allies

Welcome back. I trust you're all here because you want to be. Thank you to all who reviewed after Episode V – especially those of you whose reviews were so thorough that I had to respond to them piece by piece. Also, point of interest, there have been a few minor edits to Episodes II and III, regarding a few timeline inconsistencies. I really wasn't paying enough attention to _when _everything is supposed to be going on. It should be fine now.On that note, let's jump right in.

- - -

SHINOBI WARS: Episode VI – Allies

Kiba awoke in what appeared to be a hospital room with a massive headache. His very first thought was to find Akamaru, who had been grievously injured near the end of the battle, before Naruto…did whatever impossible thing he did. Upon trying to get up though, the pain in his head flared and a wave of nausea passed over him so powerfully that the effort required not to vomit resulted in a very loud groan. A nurse rushed in seconds later.

"You shouldn't try to get up!" she admonished. "You were severely dehydrated when we brought you in. We've managed to solve the problem, but the lingering effects will last a while before your body recovers."

"Dehydrated?" he repeated incredulously. "That's it?" How stupid!

"Well, you were fighting out there for a long time, and you sweat a lot, plus you lost a fair amount of blood," the nurse told him. "Our medical ninja say you almost suffered from chakra exhaustion as well."

"Well 'almost' doesn't mean anything," Kiba growled, and forced himself to sit up. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, preparing to stand. "Where's Akamaru? Is he okay?"

"Akamaru?" the nurse asked, puzzled.

"My dog!" Kiba snapped. "He was fighting with me and was injured! Is he okay?"

"Well…" the nurse fidgeted, and Kiba felt his stomach drop.

_No…_

"We managed to keep him from bleeding to death, but none of our medics really know very much about veterinary medicine. There isn't much we can do for him here."

"But he's alive?" Kiba pressed, relief surging through him.

"For the time being. But if he isn't taken to someone who can help him soon…"

"It's okay," Kiba cut her off. "My sister is a vet. She can help, once we get back to Konoha. Can he survive the journey?"

"I suppose," the nurse said, "if a litter or something were rigged up to carry him."

"That's what we'll do then," he said. "How about my teammates? Are they all right?"

The nurse smiled now. "They both suffered some exhaustion, but neither were any worse off than you as far as injuries go. Nothing we couldn't tend to." Kiba let out an intense sigh of relief. Things definitely could have ended a lot worse.

"I'm going to go see them," he said, and made to stand.

"You really shouldn't…!" the nurse exclaimed. She rushed over to try to hold him down, but he gently pushed her aside.

"I'll be fine," he asserted. "You said you dealt with the problem, right? I just need to walk it off now." He moved past her and out of his room into a hallway lined with doors. Only now did he realize he had no idea where his friends were. "Um…where are they?" he asked sheepishly, turning his head back to the nurse who was now giving him a very disapproving look.

"They're just down the hall that way," she pointed to her left and gave a very exasperated sigh. There wasn't anything she could do to keep him there and she obviously knew it. He gave her his thanks and headed down the hall in the direction she'd indicated. He was a few doors along when one of them opened and he was plowed into by a very…bouncy…individual.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" the young woman said. She looked about his age and had wavy blonde hanging loosely all the way to her lower back. Kiba almost suffered a relapse of dehydration from the nosebleed that threatened him upon getting a good look at her. She wore a very short skirt that revealed her perfectly toned legs, and her top would be more suitable in a fashion advertisement than a ninja hospital. Before he met Taki, he would have said this girl's breasts were huge, but they still accented her figure in such a way that it was difficult to focus on anything else.

"Ah, no, don't worry about it," Kiba managed to stutter. "I wasn't really looking where I was going," he lied.

"You're one of the Leaf ninja, aren't you?" she asked. "Not one of the ones who came with Inago-kun, I mean. I'm Kamotomo Akiko. Pleased to meet you."

"Uh, likewise," he stammered. "I'm Inuzuka Kiba." Upon hearing her say "Inago-kun", Kiba noticed the Ki hitai-ate she wore around her neck like a necklace, just like Hinata wore hers. _Hinata!_ "Um, excuse me, I was just about to go check on my teammates," he said, and edged his way around her.

"Oh, of course!" she said cheerfully. "They're just down the hall, I think. I was just in here visiting Inago-kun." She gestured to the door she'd emerged from. "He says you guys almost lost the battle."

"We probably would have if you and your comrades hadn't shown up," he said gratefully. He was walking again, and she'd fallen in beside him.

"I don't know about that," she replied. "It looked to me like that friend of yours ended up doing all the work in the end." That was true, Kiba figured. Though if Naruto could do something like that, why he hadn't done it to begin with was something worth asking the guy later. "Of course, Inago-kun says he almost killed himself doing it, and he might have if he had to do it any longer than he did, so maybe it's good we showed up after all."

Almost killed himself? What kind of kinjutsu did Naruto use? Well, maybe it wasn't so bad that he waited, then. Kiba halted suddenly when he saw Hinata's name on a door to his left.

"This is my teammate here," he said to Akiko. "Thanks for the information."

"No problem!" the Tree-nin chirped. "See you later!" and she trotted off down the hall, her extremely short skirt putting Kiba's mind in a place it should not be right before talking to Hinata. He tore his eyes away and shook his head to clear it before turning the doorknob. A brief flash of nausea returned, but was gone just as quickly and he entered the room. To his surprise, Shino was already there, sitting next to the bed that held a sleeping Hinata.

"They said you were in a room too," Kiba spoke to his captain and teammate.

"I was, but my injuries were not serious," Shino replied. "She overexerted herself." It was obvious who he meant. His hand was resting on Hinata's bed. Kiba rushed over and took another chair, settling himself on Hinata's other bedside.

"It's not like she hasn't done that before, right?" Kiba said, trying to lighten the mood. "At least nothing serious happened. We owe Naruto big this time."

Shino took a long look at their sleeping teammate, and then at Kiba himself. Finally, he uttered, "It would seem that we do."

-

Elsewhere in the hospital, someone else was getting a visit from a person who should still have been in bed.

"What are you doing in here, Taki-chan?" Inago asked as the shapely woman in question quietly slid his door shut behind her. Not that he was disappointed to see her. He was fond of Akiko, though talking with her at times like these could be…taxing. "They won't let me move, and you were worn out as badly as I was. Maybe worse."

"They won't let you move because of who you are, idiot," she responded dryly. The anger and hate from before was gone from her voice, and his heart felt lighter upon hearing that. "And I've told you never to call me that again."

"I guess I hadn't thought of that," he lied. He had, but he'd foolishly hoped the hospital staff was merely concerned for his welfare.

"Why did you come here?" She asked abruptly, pulling up a chair next to his bed and sitting in it. "I talked to those two Leaf ninja you came with, and they said they didn't talk you into coming or anything. You were ready to come as soon as you heard we were in trouble."

"Why do you think I came, Taki-chan?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Stop it!" she shrieked. "I mean it!"

"I'm sorry," he told her honestly. "You didn't mind yesterday. Well, late yesterday."

"You really are an idiot," she lamented. "And I have no idea why you came. I've been trying to figure it out since you showed up. It doesn't make any sense. It's not like you at all."

"Isn't it?" he asked, slightly hurt. "Do you know me so well? Am I the sort of person who would abandon…well, never mind. I came. Now you're all safe and I can go home. You'll never have to see me again." He paused, then added, "Unless you're still entertaining thoughts of killing me?"

Taki considered him for several long moments, and then finally let out a long breath. "No, I'm not going to kill you. I should want to, but I don't."

"Best news I've heard all week."

"That doesn't mean I want you around here, though," she added, glaring at him.

"I can live with that," he said. "Um…nobody else is going to take up your cause or anything, right? I mean, I'd hate to have to fight my way out of the village after fighting my way in."

"I think most people here are feeling pretty grateful toward you right now," she replied. "But there's no telling how long that will last. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of here as soon as you're able to get up."

"Hell, I can get up now," he said. To demonstrate, he flung off his blankets and flipped himself out of bed and over her head to land behind her. She turned to look at him and rolled her eyes.

"What?" he asked, shrugging. "I told you I was only in here because they wouldn't let me leave. I feel fine."

"Right," she said, getting up. She walked over to him and slapped something into his chest. He looked down to see his weapons pouch, which also contained a good number of scrolls.

"They're letting me have this?" he asked incredulously. "I thought I'd never see it again after they brought me in here and took it."

"Of course they aren't," she retorted.

"Then what…?"

"Happy birthday, Idiot."

"You remembered?"

She snorted. "Well I guess you don't know everything about women yet." She turned and left him gaping, trying to figure out if the sway in her hips was his imagination, or if it was simply the way she always walked.

-

Sabu Sora was distracted during a long-range reconnaissance mission, which was never a good thing. The reason was because she was very concerned for her younger sister. It wasn't worry over the girl's safety – Sango was perfectly capable of handling herself, and Sora knew perfectly well that with herself, Daichi and Kenji along there was really nothing that could happen to her – rather, she was concerned for the young girl's mental state. Sango's entire team save herself had been killed during the initial betrayal and attack that started the war. It was a very difficult thing to have to go through, especially for a sixteen year-old.

Ever since then, Sango had been very withdrawn, and barely spoke a word to anyone at all. Sora watched her as the four of them crept through the underbrush of the far eastern region of Earth Country. Their father had hoped a long mission would help her to focus and get past the tragedy. It had worked, in a way; Sango was indeed very focused on the mission, but her sullen and melancholy demeanor had not lifted. Multiple attempts at engaging her younger sister in conversation had left Sora feeling somewhat discouraged, but still determined. She cared for all her younger siblings deeply and it pained her to see one of them hurting so much. Especially Sango, whom she'd always felt especially close to.

"It's the twins' birthday today," she remarked casually, though her brothers were out of earshot and the comment was obviously directed at Sango.

"You're right, it is," Sango mused, as though just realizing it. Maybe she was. It was easy to lose track of time on these long missions.

"I wonder what they're doing to celebrate?" Sora pondered idly.

"They're probably out on a mission," Sango replied blandly. "Saburo-nii was out of commission for a while; he'll want to make up for lost time."

Despite the cheerlessness in the answer, Sora couldn't help but feel she'd won a small victory. That was the most words the younger girl had spoken at once in days.

"You might be right," Sora nodded, "though I wouldn't be surprised if Yukiko-chan at least insisted on some sort of celebration."

"Hmm," was all Sango said. Damn.

Sora didn't get a chance to pull more out of her sister, because at that moment Kenji and Daichi made their way back over to the two kunoichi.

"There's a party of ninja ahead," Daichi announced.

"How many?" Sora asked.

"Where from?" Sango inquired at the same time.

"Probably about eight, from what we could tell," Kenji answered, "and we think they're from the Mist."

"The Mist?" Sora repeated questioningly. "That's odd. I know they're allied with the Rock, but I would have expected to run into Iwa-nin first out here. Or even Kumo-nin. They're closer than the Mist, at any rate."

"There's more," Daichi said. "We think they're from Kirigakure's ANBU, or a similar organization. They all had decorative face masks."

That was unexpected, and it gave Sora a start. What were Mist ANBU doing way out here? The obvious answer was chilling, but became less so when Sango voiced it a moment later. Maybe it was because then it ceased to be an idea, and became something concrete that they could deal with.

"That probably means an assassination or something, right Onii-san?" the girl with the boomerang asked. Her expression was very serious. There was only one person north of Konoha that the Mist would be trying to assassinate.

"Most likely," Daichi nodded. "And that probably means they're after Koorikage-sama."

"He can handle them himself if there are only eight of them," Sora put in. "Probably. But it's still possible that he isn't their objective. Should we take that chance?"

"Well, the alternative would be engaging eight enemy ANBU by ourselves," Daiichi answered. "That leaves us outnumbered two to one." Sora shot a quick look at her younger sister, but didn't say anything. She knew Sango wouldn't appreciate her lower level of skill being commented on. It did mean the odds were slightly worse than two on one, though.

Kenji chose to share his opinion next. "I think it boils down to this: do we place more value on our own lives, or on the safety of the village?"

That hit home with all of them, and Sango said, "We should do it. If we die but it saves Koorikage-sama or the village, it will be worth it."

"I think Sango-chan has the right idea," Kenji replied with a grin. His hawk-like nose made the expression look very predatory. Sora and Daiichi looked at each other and nodded.

"How far from here are they?" Sora asked her older brother.

"About five or six minutes," he said. "It's possible they've detected us, but I doubt it." Stealth had been the Sabu clan's specialty for generations, since long before the founding of the ninja villages.

"We should know if they have before we get to them, in any case," Kenji added.

"Let's go, then," Sora said, making sure her scythe was ready for a fast draw. She turned to her younger sister. "Sango, I'm not going to tell you to stay here," she began, "but these shinobi are ANBU, and likely all jounin, so I want you to stay close to me. Okay?"

"Understood, Onee-san," Sango replied firmly. There was naught but a look of grim determination on her face, and she was staring hard in the direction that Daichi had indicated earlier – where the enemy was located.

There was no point in saying anything else, so Sora moved out with her siblings, keeping a tight grip with her right hand on the handle of her scythe. Daichi led the way, communicating to the rest of them via hand signals. Before long, Sora caught sight of their quarry. There were indeed eight of them, and they had arranged themselves in a fashion that suggested they were trying to pick up a trail. Apparently the Sabu siblings had been discovered after all, though Sora couldn't fathom how that was possible. Clearly these shinobi were very skilled. She spared one quick anxious glance at her sister before fixing her gaze at their targets and silently drawing two knives from her left boot. At least the enemy didn't know where they were just yet. If they were going to strike, the time was now.

Daiichi apparently agreed, for as soon as they were in position he gave the signal to attack. Sora hurled her knives at the two Kiri-nin closest to her and immediately drew three shuriken. From beside her she caught a glimpse of Sango hurling her boomerang at another before drawing a pair of kunai. Kenji used ninjutsu to send a cutting wave of water at them while Daiichi let fly with a hail of his own shuriken.

The Mist ninja reacted faster than even Sora had expected. In a flash both of her knives were deflected along with Daiichi's shuriken. Kenji's wave was sliced through as if it were nothing by a ninjutsu counter of some sort, and Sango's boomerang was stopped dead by a solid wall of earth that was raised from nowhere.

The enemy wasted no time in scattering to meet the new threat that had descended upon them. Sora cursed and fired off her shuriken, then dashed in a different direction to intercept the one that was going after Sango. She whipped out her scythe in a swift, fluid motion and brought it up to block the bladed spear that was aimed at her sister. Without even pausing to breathe, Sora whirled around and caught the man from behind, bringing her scythe blade up from his groin through his head, slicing him cleanly in two.

It was as far as her luck would take her however, as another man's straight sword caught her on the left arm, and she wasn't quick enough to pull away before receiving a decent-sized gash. Sango had recovered and was already attacking the man with the curved blades on her arms that were normally concealed beneath her tight sleeves.

Sora moved to help her sister, but was waylaid by a beam of water shooting toward her from her left. She barely had time to bring her scythe around and mold the chakra into it that was necessary to dispel the assault. The water hadn't even hit the ground when the man behind it was on top of her, his kunai held at bay only by the metal bracer on the back of her left hand. The strain of holding him back with her injured arm was proving to be too much, and she had to slip underneath him.

Performing seals while holding her scythe was a skill she'd had to master before becoming a jounin, so it was little effort to do it now. A miniature whirlwind formed in front of her as she slid under her opponent and he was flung up into the air. She saw him go up, and he was cut to pieces by the ribbon of water connected to Kenji's ice pick that was being swung around like a whip. Her brother flew over her to join the fight Sango was rapidly losing, and Sora herself sat up to see Daiichi engaged in a taijutsu brawl with three of the Kiri-nin. He wasn't faring too well, either.

A sword thrust into the ground where her head had just been, and she spun around to see its frustrated owner begin to yank it back out. She swung her scythe at him, but it was blocked by the right arm of one of his compatriots, who looked up at her through the slits in his mask and she suddenly found herself falling. There was no way to describe the sensation other than the ground simply vanishing away, but she felt as if she would be falling forever.

Knowing a genjutsu when she saw one, Sora quickly executed a release and dodged wildly – she didn't have time to find out what was coming. Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough, and a pair of shuriken caught her in her right shoulder. She let out a cry of pain as she rolled away from the follow-up attack and sprang back to her feet to face her attacker. She saw from the corner of her eye that Daiichi had felled one of his opponents, and been rewarded for his trouble with a three-foot skewer through his left thigh.

Sora hefted her scythe once again – an extreme effort now due to her wounded shoulder – and prepared to face the two men preparing to resume their attack on her. She could only hope that Kenji and Sango had managed to hold out against the man they were pitted against.

One of the two facing her threw a batch of shuriken while the other began forming seals. She deflected the shuriken easily enough, but didn't have time to stop the man from making the seals.

In the end it didn't matter, because right before he released whatever ninjutsu he'd prepared, a razor-thin gust of wind flew past her left side and cut right through the man, who was sliced in two neater than her scythe could ever do. A moment later she found herself in a shadow, and looked up to see a man clothed all in white leaping over her head, holding a sword as tall as he was shaped like a giant butcher's knife above him. He brought it down with remarkable speed, and it carved through the second man in similar fashion.

There were now only three opponents left, but she could not take for granted that this newcomer appeared to be on their side. She hesitated before making a move. Daiichi was more likely to need help – he had two on one odds against him rather than for him – but it was possible that wherever she went, this man with the giant sword would go the other way. She didn't trust him that much.

He made her decision for her by dashing towards Daiichi's fight. She followed right behind.

The newcomer formed seals as he ran, and seconds later he was riding a large wave toward his quarry, holding his sword back for a quick assault. Sora couldn't keep up with the rushing water, but that fact proved moot as the two Mist-nin fighting her brother split up to face it: one stood fast to counter the torrent while the other leaped aside. The latter was grasped around the ankle by a kneeling Daiichi and pulled around rapidly. Before the masked shinobi could react, Daiichi's great fist with its spiked braces obliterated his skull.

Meanwhile, the other ANBU had successfully blocked the stranger's wave, but was being overwhelmed by that great knife-like sword. Sora drew some knives from her boot as she ran and hurled them at the hostile shinobi. It proved to be just enough of a diversion – in moving to avoid the knives, the man was unable to keep up his evasion of the sword and was cut down in a violent spray of blood. Assuming Kenji and Sango were successful in dispatching the last of these men, the entire fight from initial ambush to brutal conclusion had lasted less than two minutes.

Unfortunately, Sora couldn't check on her two younger siblings, since she wasn't yet ready to turn her back on this man dressed in white – especially while he was standing next to her already-injured older brother. She remained on-guard as she finished the run up to them, and kept her scythe in hand.

"Are you all right?" She asked Daiichi as she helped him stand. He winced as he straightened his impaled left leg. Neither of them took their eyes of the stranger.

"I'll live," was all her brother said.

"Hey!" came Kenji's call from behind them. Sora's relief at hearing his voice was immense, but the knot in her gut wouldn't dissolve completely until she heard her sister's voice too.

Her wish was quickly granted as Kenji approached them warily (keeping an eye on the stranger as well), supporting a conscious but beaten Sango with her arm draped over his shoulders. Her face was bruised and her lip bleeding, and her left arm hung limp at her side, but she managed a victorious expression nonetheless.

Kenji looked better, but still showed signs of the fight. He was sporting many small cuts along his arms, and a shallow puncture wound on his gut was oozing blood onto his shirt. Overall though, he was probably the least injured of them all.

"Who's this guy?" he asked when he arrived, making sure not to present this unknown man with the side of him that was supporting Sango.

"We're not sure," Daiichi replied hesitantly, "but he just saved us all. I think."

Sora was about to elaborate when the stranger lifted his sword from his shoulder again. Alarmed, Sora made to raise her scythe once more, but all the man did with his weapon was bring it to a point-down position in front of his body, and after a second's pause he rammed it into the ground. He stepped back from it with his hands raised, and when she and the others didn't move to attack him he lowered them to his sides. Sora was still keeping a tight grip on her scythe, and she could see Kenji was gripping his ice pick behind his back with the hand not supporting their sister.

"My name is Shirotani Ichigo," the man said. He sounded surprisingly young – probably younger than her. Come to think of it, he looked young, too. His skill had thrown her off at first. He was perhaps as tall as Kenji or just about, and was sturdily built. But he had a youthful face below an unkempt crop of orange-red hair. His most striking feature, however, was his teeth. They were all sharpened to a point. She had seen that before, briefly. Her suspicions were confirmed seconds later as the young man completed his introduction. "I'm one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist."

"MURDERER!" Sango suddenly yelled, and before Sora or Kenji could stop her, she was a step away from the man, with her freshly-drawn kodachi poking into his chin. Startlingly, the man called Ichigo made absolutely no move to defend himself or even avoid her.

"The only murder I've done recently was to save all of your hides," he said calmly, looking Sango in the eye. "I'm not saying you should be thanking me or anything, but this is a little ungrateful, don't you think?"

"Ungrateful?" Sango spat furiously. "You Mist ninja and your allies slaughtered my teammates and countless others from our village! One of you Seven Swordsmen almost killed our brother and sister!"

Sora was taken aback by her sister's fury. Certainly she shared the girl's righteous anger towards the Mist, but this man in particular had done nothing to them except save their lives at the cost of killing his own comrades. Surely that deserved at the least an opportunity for him to explain himself.

Evidently her older brother agreed with her, because he ordered Sango to stand down. She gave him a disbelieving look, but she did as she was told.

"I apologize for my sister," Daiichi said, "but she does raise a good point. We have no reason to trust anyone from Kirigakure, least of all one of the Seven Swordsmen. That man likely would have killed our siblings if given even one more minute."

"Who, Tourou?" Ichigo asked casually. He didn't seem fazed at all by anything that was going on. "Geez, I never liked that guy. He was so arrogant all the time, even though he was the weakest of the Seven Swordsmen."

"Are you serious?" Kenji piped up. "That guy was the _weakest _of you?" Kenji alone among them had actually faced off against the now-dead swordsman, and had been thoroughly unnerved by his strength. It was understandable he'd be shaken with the knowledge that the other six were stronger still. Sora herself was unsettled by it as well.

"Well, he may have been a little stronger than me," Ichigo said, "but that hardly counts. I've only been one of the Swordsmen for a year. I would've surpassed him in another."

"All of this is very interesting," Daiichi interrupted, "but it doesn't explain why you're here in the Earth Country, or why you killed your own comrades to help us."

"These guys?" Ichigo asked, gesturing to the fallen men on the ground. He almost sounded…amused? "These guys weren't my comrades. Not anymore, anyway. They were sent here to kill me."

That was a surprise – and a puzzling one at that. Sora joined the conversation.

"They were sent here to kill _you_? Not someone in Yukigakure?"

Ichigo shook his head. "These weren't assassins or ANBU," he said. "They were hunter-nins. They were chasing after me for deserting the Hidden Mist. When you attacked them, I knew it was my best chance to be rid of them, so I helped."

"So your intervention here was based entirely on self-interest," Daiichi nodded. "That's only to be expected, I suppose. Also, we couldn't kill you in good conscience now, though you could hardly have been counting on that. Can you give us a good reason why we shouldn't take you prisoner?"

"Not really, no," Ichigo said. "I was kind of counting on it."

"You mean you _want_ to be taken prisoner?" Kenji asked. He was still fingering his ice pick. For that matter, Sora still held her scythe ready. A good way to spy on an enemy was to become his captive and then escape. It also presented good opportunities for sabotage and the sowing of dissent.

"Hardly," was Ichigo's reply. "I hate being a prisoner as much as anybody else. What I meant was that I came here expecting the Snow to either kill or capture me, though I was hoping for the second one."

"If you expected that, why did you come in the first place?" Kenji asked. It was a good question.

"My sister," Ichigo answered immediately. "In the Mist village, there are some…traditions that I don't really think very much of. My sister is only mildly talented as a shinobi, but her physique is excellent and she's healthy. Once she grew up to around fourteen or fifteen, they would have used her for breeding stock. She'd be trapped in a basement room for the rest of her life, no better than livestock."

Sora gasped in horror. Even Sango lost her furious expression to one of disgust. Kenji and Daiichi both snorted derisively.

"Barbaric," Daiichi muttered, and Kenji nodded in agreement.

"So you left your village to save her from this…" Sora recounted, "but why come to the Snow?"

"If I traveled to any 'allies' of the Hidden Mist, they would just inform the Mizukage of what we'd done, or worse, use Ringo themselves the same way. As refugees, we wouldn't really have any rights. I know we're enemies, but I also know that the Snow and the Leaf have philosophies that would oppose that sort of thing. I've killed too many Leaf ninja to hope for help there, but I thought…I thought if I came to the Snow and offered myself as a prisoner, then maybe I could convince you to let my sister live there with you in peace."

Sora was at a loss for words. Plainly her siblings were as well, because nobody said anything for several long moments. Finally, she decided some kind of answer had to be given, so she might as well be the one to give it.

"We aren't exactly in a position to either grant or refuse your request," she explained carefully to Ichigo. "But if you agree to come back as a captive, we can get you an audience to plead your case to the Koorikage."

"Thank you," Ichigo said softly, lowering his head. "That's all I can ask for, really."

"Where is your sister?" Daiichi asked. "I assume she's hiding somewhere near here?"

"A few minutes away," Ichigo confirmed. "But before I take you there, you need to promise me something. Even if your village decides to execute me, even if they decide to refuse my request, promise me my sister won't be hurt. Even if they decide to send her away, please don't hurt her."

The sincerity of his plea touched something in Sora, and she made a decision. "I can only speak for myself," she said, "but I promise you this: I will allow no harm to come to your sister unless she actively seeks to harm someone of our village. If the decision to send her away is made, I will protect her myself until she is safely out of the Hidden Snow Village."

Sango was looking at her with a disbelieving expression, and even Kenji and Daiichi were regarding her in a bit of a lopsided fashion. It didn't matter, though. She had given her word and she would stick by it.

"Thank you," Ichigo repeated. "She's this way." He gestured with his hand and then started walking, albeit at a very brisk pace. Sora had the least amount of difficultly keeping up; Daiichi, despite having removed the skewer and bandaging his leg during the conversation, was still limping heavily, and Sango had needed to revert to leaning on Kenji in order to walk. Kenji yanked Ichigo's sword from the ground as he walked past it, and when Sora questioned him with her eyes, he simply shrugged.

"Who knows?" he said. "It might come in handy someday." Sora just rolled her eyes and continued following Ichigo.

Just as the swordsman had said, it only took them a few minutes to reach the place he'd been leading them to. A small copse of trees stood in a shallow valley between to short hills, and a large tree in the center was hollow near the base. In the hollow a small girl was huddled, wearing nothing but a blue T-shirt with wave patterns and dark grey short pants. She wore a kunai holster and a supply pouch as well, but was otherwise unadorned. She did not possess a hitai-ate like the one her brother wore on his left upper arm.

Sora stepped forward slowly to get a better look at the girl, who was looking back at her in fear. She was young, perhaps around ten or eleven, and though her muscles were toned and showed signs of shinobi training, she did not possess the self-assuredness she had come to expect from those on the cusp of becoming ninja. It might have been the shock of meeting four high-ranking foreign shinobi, though.

The girl's face was somewhat plain, and even her black hair that hung limply to her shoulders had no particular sheen or luster to it. It would be difficult to pick this girl out of a crowd – a trait, Sora reminded herself, that would actually serve her well as a shinobi.

"Hello," Sora said kindly to the girl. "My name is Sora. I'm pleased to meet you." Sora saw the girl look quickly to her brother, and then she felt Ichigo nod from behind her shoulder. The young girl looked back at her.

"I'm Shirotani Ringo," the girl said. "P-pleased to meet you." Her voice betrayed her fear and uncertainty, but it was nothing Sora didn't expect. She was also not surprised that Sango and her brothers were letting her take the lead on this. Kenji and Daiichi always teased her about being the mothering type, and Sango had made it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with these Mist-nin.

_Former_ Mist-nin, Sora reminded herself. She was going to have to get used to thinking of them that way – Ringo, at least, and that would be difficult if she didn't do the same for the girl's brother. And she wasn't mothering; she liked to think of herself as more of a big sister to everyone. She was too young to be a mother. _Idiots,_ she thought fondly of her brothers.

"Ringo-chan, your brother has asked us to take you both back to Yukigakure no Sato," Sora explained.

Ringo's eyes went from her to Ichigo to Kenji, then back to Ichigo and finally back to her.

"How come he's got onii-san's sword?" She asked without pointing.

Sora fumbled for a response that would satisfy the girl, but Ichigo butted in.

"Ringo, we talked about this," he said. "Our village and theirs are enemies. They can't be sure they can trust me, so they have to take my weapon away. They haven't hurt me, see?" He held his arms wide, perhaps to illustrate that he was not wounded. Sora made a silent prayer of thanks that he hadn't been injured in the earlier battle.

"Is it really safe, Onii-san?"

Ichigo nodded, but Sora still felt she needed to make a connection with this girl.

"I've promised your brother that I won't let anything happen to you," she said softly. "I will keep my promise, but you don't have to come if you don't want to." Kenji and Sango both started to say something, but she held up her hand to silence them. She knew full well that they couldn't let one of the Seven Swordsmen go now that they had him in their grasp, but she was also confident in what this young girl would decide. A kind older female figure was often a comfort to girls in her situation, and her brother had already given her his assurances.

"Okay," Ringo finally said. "Let's go." She stepped out from the hollow of the tree, and Daiichi immediately held out a blanket from his pack.

"It gets pretty cold where we come from," he said. "That T-shirt of yours isn't going to seem like much before too long."

"Th-thank you," Ringo stammered as she took the blanket from him with a shaking hand. Sora smiled warmly at her older brother.

"It's great that this is all settled," Kenji broke in, "but I think it's time we find a place to treat our injuries. We won't be going anywhere if they start to fester."

The rest of them agreed, and it was decided they would stay right there in the copse. It was the best cover within some distance in any direction – both from enemies and the elements – and they could begin treating their injuries right away. Daiichi had already taken a blood-clotting pill and bandaged his wound, so the only thing for him to do was take the time to make sure his field dressing had been a good one.

Kenji had apparently taken a blood-clotting pill too, but hadn't gotten around to treating his wound yet. Sora hadn't done anything, so she popped a pill in her mouth and freed herself from her left sleeve to have a look at the gash on her arm. It wasn't as bad as it felt, thank goodness, but would still need tending. She would have to have someone else look at her shoulder.

"Get away!" she heard Sango snap, and whipped her head around to see Ichigo leering away from her with his hands held up defensively. Sora watched warily and monitored her own urge to draw a weapon.

"Sorry," Ichigo said. "But you're going to have a hard time treating your wounds by yourself with that arm." He pointed to her still-limp left appendage. "It's broken; anyone can see that. I can set it for you."

Sango opened her mouth, no doubt to lay into the man verbally if the furious expression on her face was any indication, but Sora cut her off.

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," she said. "I can set her arm for her as soon as I'm finished here." She indicated the bandages she was wrapping around her own arm. "I think it's best if you just keep to yourself for the time being."

"And while we're on the subject," Daiichi added, looking up from his leg, "we're going to have to restrain you when we go to sleep. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I figured as much," Ichigo replied with a resigned expression. "Just don't make it too uncomfortable, okay?"

They finished shortly thereafter, with Sora setting Sango's arm and Kenji looking over the shuriken wounds in Sora's shoulder. They relieved Ichigo of all his equipment and tied him around the base of a tree, placing explosive tags on the wire that would go off if he attempted to escape. He sat calmly through the whole thing, making casual conversation with anyone who would talk to him, and bid his sister goodnight. She would bear watching too, obviously, but it was deemed unnecessary to restrain her. Finally, with Kenji staying up to take the first watch, they all settled down to get some much-needed sleep. It was still a long way back to Yukigakure.

-

Naruto had been surprised when Inago approached him and announced he was leaving the Hidden Grass Village. It seemed awfully quick, but he wasn't complaining. After all, now that the Grass was safe, as well as his friends, it was time to complete his own mission back in Kigakure no Sato. His only concern was whether Sakura had recovered enough to make the journey, but oddly enough she seemed more worried about him than herself.

"Are you sure you're okay, Naruto?" she asked as they headed out late that afternoon. To think that only twenty-four hours ago, they had all been fighting for their lives on this very ground. Bodies still littered the landscape, and buzzards and crows were gorging themselves on an endless buffet of decaying flesh. The stench was monstrous, and he had to work very hard to ignore it. Traveling with them were all the other shinobi from the Hidden Tree Village, and to look at them one would think they didn't smell anything. They just appeared glad to be going home. He could appreciate the feeling.

"I really am, Sakura-chan," he assured her for the fifth time. "It's like I said, the side effects are really dangerous, but once it's over it's over. I'm fine now."

She still looked skeptical. "I just wish you'd let me examine you," she practically pouted.

"I really don't think that would be a good idea," he said. "You used up a lot of chakra yesterday, and you're not like me. You should probably rest yourself for a while."

"Examining someone doesn't take very much chakra," she argued.

"Yeah, well, it's still some, isn't it? I'm worried about _you_, Sakura-chan. I don't want you to overdo it." He refrained from saying "again," but the implication was there, and he was pretty sure she caught it from the look she gave him. She did drop the subject, though. He was about to bring up a more cheerful topic when someone else broke into their conversation. It was one of those Ki-nin dressed all in black – the one with the wooden sword. He couldn't remember which one was which.

"Sakura-san!" he said, coming forward to join them. "We haven't really had a chance to speak yet. It's nice to see you again."

"Yes, it's been a long time, hasn't it, Raku-san?" she replied kindly. Naruto gave the guy a searching look. There was suddenly something he didn't like about this Raku person.

"How is Ino-san doing?" he asked. "I hope she's well."

"She was fine when I saw her last," Sakura answered. "But right now she's on a mission just like ours. Only…well, I don't know which country she was sent to."

"I see," Raku nodded. "Well, I wouldn't expect you to tell me even if you did, of course. I hope wherever she is, the atmosphere is less troubled than what we've seen here." Sakura nodded emphatically, and Naruto could see the concern for her friend in her eyes. What's more, this Raku guy actually seemed sincere in his fondness for Ino. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all. In fact, Naruto found he couldn't think of what it was that made him think otherwise in the first place. Strange.

"Morisato, will you stop messing around and hurry up?" came an annoyed voice from the back of the group. Naruto turned and saw the tall, black-haired girl berating the bespectacled Ki-nin with her hands on her hips. He was wiping off his kodachi blade.

"Gomen, Motoko-chan," he said with a nervous chuckle. "I just don't like seeing these buzzards pecking away at people like that." Naruto looked closer and saw a several dead buzzards in the group's wake, and understood what was going on. He couldn't help but grin – he didn't have much love for buzzards, either.

"Well I don't either," the tall girl was saying, "but you can't get rid of them all and you're just wasting time."

"Now, Motoko-chan," Inago called from the front of the group, "it's not worth getting upset over. We're not exactly in a hurry, anyway."

"Maybe not, but it would be nice to make it back in a reasonable amount of time," Motoko called back.

"Yes, but killing buzzards isn't going to slow us down significantly. We'll still make it back in a couple of days, give or take a few minutes." Motoko crossed her arms in frustration, but said no more. Naruto looked at Sakura, who shrugged, and Raku laughed.

"Don't mind Motoko," he told them, though he made sure to do it quietly enough so that she couldn't overhear. "She likes things to be done efficiently, and she's always had it in for poor Keitaro anyway."

"Why is that?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Well, it's not really my place to say, but I can tell you this: I think Keitaro frustrates her. Things have always come pretty easily for Motoko, but she still trains herself to her limit. Keitaro – well let's just say Keitaro has had to struggle and suffer for every inch of progress he's ever made in his life. She looks at him, someone who's five years her senior and yet weaker than herself, and…well, I've probably said too much already. But don't judge her too harshly. My little sister may be a great kunoichi, but she still has a lot to learn about people."

Naruto nodded like he understood, but he really didn't. It sounded like this girl expected everyone to be just as good at everything as she was. He wanted to go back and talk to her – give her a piece of his mind – but Sakura must have been reading his thoughts because she shook her head almost imperceptibly at him, telling him to just leave the situation alone. He shrugged and did just that.

However, by the time they arrived at the Hidden Tree Village a day and a half later, he was ready to pull his hair out. The girl had been harping on the poor Keitaro guy practically nonstop for the entire trip. Every time he would gracefully apologize for whatever he'd supposedly done and just let it go. Naruto had to hand it to the guy for putting up with it, but by the end he was kind of annoyed with Keitaro as well for not sticking up for himself. He was relieved when they entered the village and all but Inago went off to file reports or whatever it was they had to do, because he was about ready to yell his head off at both of them and beat some respect into Motoko, and some backbone into Keitaro. Sakura-chan probably wouldn't have been very happy with that.

As soon as the rest of the group split off, Inago began taking them straight to the council building. Inago had regained the spring in his step that had been present when Naruto and Sakura first met him, leaping and flipping through the trees like a child playing a game without a care in the world. It was so different from how linearly and determinedly he'd led them to the Hidden Grass a few days ago.

When the great domed structure was finally in sight, their party was ambushed by a young kunoichi who came barreling out of the trees as though shot from a canon.

"Inago-sensei!" Yorokobi Sami squealed in delight, throwing her arms around the jounin's torso and almost knocking him over with her momentum. Fortunately, he'd seen her coming just in time and was able to adjust his feet enough to absorb her impact.

"Sami-chan, how do you do that? I haven't even been back for five minutes!" Inago laughed, setting the girl down gently. Naruto and Sakura looked on in amusement.

"I'm stalking you," the girl teased. When Inago pretended to freak out she confessed, "Actually, it was just luck. I was on my way home from the Academy and I saw you."

"Well, as lucky as you might be, we'll have to talk later," Inago told her. "I need to escort Naruto-san and Sakura-san here to the council building; they have business to discuss there."

"Akiko-sensei said the council was upset with you," Sami said, "but she didn't say why. Are you in trouble, Inago-sensei?"

"Probably, but it's nothing I can't deal with. You go ahead home and I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Well, all right," the girl huffed. "But you still have to show me a new jutsu. Remember, you promised!" With that, she took off back into the trees and Inago shook his head in mirth. Sakura was remarking how cute the girl was, but something else had caught Naruto's ears.

"Inago, she said something about 'Akiko-sensei'. Is that…?"

"It's who you're thinking of, yes," Inago answered with a grin. Naruto's eyes went wide. Even Sakura seemed shocked, which was funny in itself, since she would normally consider his reaction to be rude. "I can see where you're going," Inago continued, "but she's actually really good with kids. This is her first year as an instructor, and she works with the kids who've just entered the Academy, getting them familiar with what leading a life as a shinobi will be like. She does some of the more basic kunoichi specialty courses, too. Ikebana, how to dress to blend in with civilian women, that sort of thing."

"Well _that_ I can picture," Naruto said. He heard Sakura forcibly restraining herself from giggling.

"Believe it or not, when she's not trying to get into my pants, she's good at what she does," Inago said lightheartedly. Naruto was brought up short, and Sakura froze, blushing. Inago had been smiling slightly at his own joke, but now he outright laughed at the both of them. "You two need to lighten up a bit," he chuckled. "Anyway, we're kind of wasting time, so let's get going."

The rest of the trip was made in an awkward silence, as neither Sakura nor Naruto could decide how to respond to Inago's declaration. Naruto, for his part, had spent a great deal of time in the company of both Kakashi and Jiraiya, and was therefore accustomed to spurts of outright perversion. However, he couldn't really decide if what Inago had said was perverted or not. From the faint blush and confused expression on Sakura's face, she didn't either. In the end, Naruto decided that if Sakura wasn't sure if something was perverted or not, then it probably wasn't. She usually managed to pounce on things like that almost immediately.

There was a different shinobi standing outside the doors of the council building this time, one Naruto didn't know or recognize. He escorted them in without a word, and returned to his post just as silently at a nod from the council. It seemed like a pretty cold reception.

"We have received word," said the councilman to the far right, skipping all formalities and jumping right in, "that your…excursion to the Grass was successful. Congratulations." He didn't say the word the way it was supposed to be said, and it made Naruto nervous. He was talking in that condescending way the Konoha elders always did whenever they got a particularly large stick in their ass over something he had done, but couldn't punish him outright because there had been positive results.

"With all due respect…" Inago began, but was cut off with a wave by the old man in the center.

"We are well aware of the circumstances regarding the events that have taken place at Kusagakure in the last few days, Hayashimi-kun," the old man said brusquely. "We have already received a message from the Grass…_thanking_ us for our assistance. Be assured your comrades received no more authorization from this council to intervene than you did."

"However," broke in one of the women, and it seemed to Naruto like that first word was directed at her cohort before she turned her attention on Inago, "that is to be dealt with another time. You acted rashly, Hayashimi-kun, but this council cannot deny the results were in our favor. But for the time being, we must address ourselves to Uzumaki-san." She then turned her penetrating stare on Naruto, who felt Sakura step up beside him. His heart warmed at the show of solidarity, but he knew he couldn't show it in front of these people. He was in enough hot water with them as it was.

"Uzumaki-san, the last time you stood here, you had some strong words to say to this council," the old woman said. He opened his mouth to respond, but she held up a hand to forestall him. "I'm not asking for an explanation, or an apology, or heaven forbid more of the same," she said. "My point is only this: you came here asking for our help, to honor our status with Konohagakure no Sato as an ally. You then made it clear you did not think much of our opinion of what an ally is. And lastly you proceeded to show us – quite blatantly, I might add – exactly what it is an ally should be."

"What my colleague is getting at," the other woman on the council broke in, "is that we have seen how the Leaf looks after its allies, and it would only benefit us to ensure that our alliance remains intact. You may therefore inform your Hokage that the Leaf will have the full support of the Tree in this conflict, Uzumaki-san."

"Really!?" Naruto exclaimed, unable to hold back his excitement. He could see Sakura's face light up as well. He had been sure these old coots were going to read him the riot act and send him packing.

"Yes, really," the old man on the left said with an indulgent smile upon his face. "You've made quite an impression on this council, Uzumaki Naruto. I look forward to meeting you again in the future."

"Me too!" Naruto exclaimed. "Thanks a bunch!"

"Naruto, that's not the way you're supposed to end talks like this," Sakura said from his right, shaking her head.

"Oh, right," he murmured. Then, to the council, he said, "Thank you very much for your support, and um…may our alliance of mutual benefit last for many years to come." He turned to Sakura once more and spoke under his breath. "That's how it's supposed to go, right Sakura-chan." Sakura just put her head in her hand and sighed, but she didn't correct him.

"Indeed," said the old man on the left. "Until we meet again, then." Farewells were made, and Naruto and Sakura took their leave. Inago was allowed to go with them to see them off, but was told to return immediately afterwards.

"It's been fun," he told them once he'd escorted them beyond the village's perimeter.

"It was wonderful meeting you, Inago-san," Sakura said.

"One of these days you'll have to tell me why you're wanted dead in so many places," Naruto added glibly.

"Um, yeah. A story for another day, Naruto-kun," the Ki-nin answered nervously. "Have a safe trip home!" They waved and started making their way down the road, and when they looked back he was gone.

"He'll be a strong ally," Naruto observed.

"They all will," Sakura agreed. "I'm glad we got them on our side. For once you acting like a loudmouth idiot actually worked in our favor."

"Hey!" he objected. "I don't remember you putting up much of a fight when we left here the last time, Sakura-chan."

"Well, you didn't give me much of a choice, did you?" she retorted. "But it's not like I disagreed with you. I admire how fervent you are about helping people, Naruto. Sometimes I just wish you'd be a little more…diplomatic about it."

"I guess I do get kind of in-your-face about it, huh?" he laughed, scratching the back of his head. Sakura nodded vigorously, but she was the effect was lost when she started to giggle. "It's just part of my charm, I guess," he added innocently. Sakura giggled harder and gave him a playful shove.

"You're about as charming as a wild boar with a toothache," she teased. He put on a hurt look, which only served to make her stick her tongue out at him.

"If you're finished insulting me," he mock-pouted, "let's get up to the trees and book it, Sakura-chan. Walking down the road didn't really help last time, and I kind of want to get home as fast as we can and avoid being ambushed again."

"People could still ambush us in the trees you know, Naruto."

"Yeah, but it beats just walking down the middle of the road, don't you think?" He retorted cheekily. She thought about it for a second and then nodded her agreement, and the two of them leaped back up into the trees.

-

Ino was having trouble telling up from down. The rush of escaping from the Hidden Rain had been completely dwarfed by the shocking onset of Shikamaru's sudden and display of affection.

The kiss took her completely off-guard. He was almost starting to pull away before it even occurred to her that maybe she should kiss back. When she did, it was still hesitant, as though she wasn't really sure what she was doing. She _wasn't_ sure. It felt like something that shouldn't be allowed; kissing Shikamaru was the sort of thing she laughed off if it was suggested to her – not because it was undesirable, but because it was so incredibly unlikely.

Was this something she wanted? It didn't feel wrong, but did that mean it was right? She cared for Shikamaru more than anyone else in the world, but in what way?

Okay, so she'd kissed him before. But on the cheek! Nothing even close to this! Flirtatious and teasing fancies were a far cry from full-fledged lip-locking. Even those times when her admiration of him or worry for his safety had overridden her better judgement didn't compare to what was, for all practical purposes, making out in the middle of hostile territory.

These thoughts plagued Ino all through their flight toward Hi no Kuni over the next few days. The two of them didn't talk much except when it involved a good hiding place or whether they sensed anyone following them. That didn't bode well, she thought. She had a feeling what had happened between them was the kind of thing that needed to be talked about rather than ignored.

Yet despite the turmoil that raged within her, Ino couldn't bring herself to bring it up. And the longer she waited, the harder it was becoming. So what if she felt her face flush every time they exchanged a look? Those looks were to communicate important things like direction changes or possible ambush sites. The last thing a professional shinobi needed to be talking about on an escape from unfriendly terrain was what a silly kiss meant. And if being professional meant her heart rate was a little higher than usual, or that her throat caught whenever he said her name, then it was nothing she couldn't deal with.

There were times when wondering what her feelings for Shikamaru were was the furthest thing from her mind. Twice already they'd nearly been spotted by Ame-nin scouts, and the twitchy little agents of the daimyo's government suddenly seemed to be everywhere. It wasn't difficult to avoid them one at a time, but when your days became a seemingly endless zigzag between one and the next, it stretched the nerves a little thin.

They were nearing the border now, and would reach it within the next hour. Ino was ready to explode from the multiple sources of tension and their arrival back into friendly territory couldn't come a moment too soon for her. Shikamaru, for his part, seemed perfectly calm – a fact that was both reassuring and infuriating. The jerk kisses her out of the blue, says she's incredible, and then just continues on like it was something he did every day. If she wasn't half-sure she wanted to jump him in return herself, she'd want to murder him.

"Ino," he said, jarring her out of her thoughts and back to the present. There were no trees for them to leap through, so they were making their way along the ground in the brush that followed the road.

"What is it?"

"We're nearing the border checkpoint," he announced, as if she didn't know. "I think our best option is to just go right through without worrying if they see us. It's not like we need to worry about ruining relations with them now." She was ready to agree with him, but he apparently wasn't finished. "What do you think?"

She very nearly stopped in her tracks. Had she heard him right? He was asking for her thoughts on a strategy? Had he ever done that? Well, he had a few times in their genin days, but as she later discovered that was just lip service to shut her up and make her feel like the leader. He wasn't doing that now, though. He was watching her, anticipating her answer. His eyes told her that whatever it was, he would consider it seriously.

When the reality of this struck her, she almost cried. To set a path for herself, a goal as a ninja that she would strive to achieve, was one thing. Telling Sakura about it made it so much more real, and even made her feel good just thinking about it. But to have it actually _happen…_the feeling was indescribable. She could feel her heart racing and her skin was tingling all over. The temptation to imitate Shikamaru's actions outside the Rain Village was almost irrepressible. Despite technically still being in mortal danger, Ino could not recall ever being happier in her entire life than she was at that moment.

Miraculously, she managed to sound composed when she did answer him what seemed an eternity later.

"You're right about that," she said. "But if we're doing it that way, we should just walk right down the road. They may have gotten our descriptions out this far already and they may not have, but if they're watching the border the last thing they'd expect us to do is just walk out." He nodded, and she went on. "And that's assuming they even have the manpower to watch the border at all. We assumed it was airtight when we came in, but from what we've seen neither the original Amegakure faction nor the side allied to Akatsuki can afford to divert so much attention to that kind of thing."

He smiled widely and picked up right where she left off. "Which leaves the government officials to watch the boundary. And even if they recognize us, everything we've seen indicates they want nothing more than to stay out of shinobi affairs."

"Let's hit the road, then," Ino declared confidently, and the two of them strode out of the brush and onto the hard-packed dirt after taking a moment to perform _henge_ to minutely alter their appearances.

They had walked a few minutes, casually making small talk, when they noticed a figure on the road ahead of them. When Ino squinted to try and make out who it might be, she suddenly found that whoever it was had somehow traversed the distance between them and was now standing only about ten feet from their faces. She felt rather than saw Shikamaru's reaction, and it was very unnerving. Fear coupled with determination seemed to radiate off of him, though his expression had not changed at all. He glared impassively at the blue-haired woman barring their path.

Their unknown roadblock had an origami flower pinned in her hair, and her chin sported a small stud that went through a piercing below her lower lip. She wore a long black cloak spotted with red clouds. When she spoke, it was with a distinctly feminine yet very cold voice.

"This is as far as you go."

- - -

Well, that's that. The scene at the end was originally going to take place in Episode VII, but I really liked the idea of ending right there with a cliffhanger. This means that I'll have to backtrack a bit chronologically when covering other things that are going on with the other characters, but it's nothing I haven't done before. (The entire battle at the Grass took place before Shikamaru's team even encountered the Akatsuki village, and everything else that happened with the other characters up through this chapter took place before their escape from Hanzou)

Also, I didn't set out to make this chapter all about the OCs, it just kind of turned out that way. I added a bit more with Naruto and Sakura to try and counterbalance that, and it was another factor influencing my decision to include the Ino and Shikamaru bit. Believe me, everything that happened herein is very plot-heavy and will be important later on. (Of course, as the author I'm bound to feel that way about everything.)

Thanks again to my prereader, HitokiriOTD, for his excellent assistance, and for his help in coming up with a title. I didn't end up using any of his suggestions, but he got my mind whirring in the right direction. (Though I was pretty close to going with his last idea, "Another Chick With Big Knockers Shows Up".)

Before I go, I'd like to point out a little observation I've made. The number of favourite lists this story is on is only two fewer than the total number of reviews I have received for it. Keeping in mind that several totally awesome people have reviewed multiple times, assuming my math is correct there's something missing in these numbers.

Don't even get me started about the number of alert lists this is on.

I do not believe there are any translations necessary in this chapter. That's a first.


	8. Episode VII: Cloud Strife

Hello again. First off, I'd like to get something out of the way. Some of you may have noticed something familiar about the character Shirotani Ichigo from the previous chapter. That is because you were supposed to. He is not the first original character like this, and he won't be the last. Let me just say now and forever, since there apparently was some confusion, that neither he nor any other original character appearing in this story is a crossover. He is not the character from Bleach, nor was he intended to be, and I will not be introducing aspects of Bleach into the story. I apologize if this is the impression I gave.

A good number of characters in this fic are shamelessly (my own description) based on characters from other areas of popular culture. You may have noticed a few of them before. None of them are crossovers, and I only put them in because I find it funny. There are a number of other references to any number of things elsewhere in the story as well – it's not just a character thing. You may have noticed some of those, too. Again, it's just because I think it's funny. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't read too much into it. ^_^

That being said, it's time to move on. As I'm starting this, I have absolutely no idea how long this episode is going to be. I can already sense it's going to be one of those that takes on a mind of its own and gets away from me. I'm looking forward to that.

Lastly, I would like to announce that as of the previous chapter, Shinobi Wars is now the longest story in terms of word count that I have ever posted anywhere ever. As of this chapter, I will finally break 100,000 words. Of course by now, a good 5,000 or so of those probably come from these intros and the end notes. Ah well.

SHINOBI WARS: Episode VII – Cloud Strife

Cloud ninja Senboshi Rando walked swiftly through the narrow mountain streets of Kumogakure no Sato. He moved as fast as he could without making it look like he was in a hurry. He didn't know if anyone would care what he was up to, but he knew it was best not to take any unnecessary risks along that front.

Ever since the war began – had it really been almost a month already? – there was un undercurrent of energy buzzing through the Hidden Cloud Village. It wasn't the positive energy of excitement or the negative energy of fear or anxiety; it was something elsewhere, elusive. The unidentifiable quality of it was what worried Rando the most.

The normally humid air that hung throughout the mountaintops where the village was built was even heavier than usual this late October morning but he paid it no mind as he walked along the winding stone paths that navigated the peaks and cliffsides so many people called home. At last he came to the dwelling he sought, and knocked sharply three times on the sturdy wooden door. Moments later a small slat slid open at eye level on the door, followed quickly by the opening of the door itself. Though there was no one visible standing behind it, Rando stepped quickly into the unlit room beyond and heard the door swing shut behind him.

No more than a second after the click of the latch, lights came on inside the dwelling, which was carved entirely out of the side of the cliff face. He turned around casually and his eyes met with those of the woman he had come to see.

Matsumoto Rikuto was a beautiful woman despite her masculine name; that was often the first word on people's minds when they saw her, man or woman. She was slender and trim, and her height was tall for a woman – about even with an average man. Her face was unmarred save for a small beauty mark on her lower right cheek, and her skin was smooth and flawless. Rando had an eye for women, and he could not deny that he had never seen one in all his years more perfectly proportioned than Rikuto. Her legs, hips and waist, her breasts, everything looked just the right size in comparison to everything else so that it was impossible to focus on only one of her features. Golden brown hair fell in waves past her shoulders and framed her already lovely face. Truly, if a man could ever design a woman from scratch in every detail, the result would look exactly like Rikuto.

So Rando thought, in any case. He had shared this with her many times, and always received a cold glare in return.

Such things were not important just then though, as he was reminded when she spoke briskly to him after apparently tiring of waiting for him to say why he had come.

"What is it, Rando?" she demanded. "You haven't come here yourself in quite some time. Is it important?" She sounded urgent, and it never ceased to amaze Rando how a voice that could sound so melodious under other circumstances could hold such power behind it now.

"You asked to know if the Raikage ever exhibited any unusual behavior," Rando said. Her green eyes shot open wide, and she darted across the room in a flash to stand right next to him. The black gi and hakama she wore, though loose, did not sway the slightest at the movement.

"What is it, Rando? What has he done?" Her voice was calm, but Rando could tell she was restraining herself from shaking him to spit it out. Rando glanced at the pair of chairs in the sparse room, and with a gesture she invited him to sit.

"Thanks," he said, taking a seat. She did the same in the other chair and turned to face him again, waiting. "This could take a while, because I honestly don't know what to make of it. I figured you'd have an idea, though." She nodded, but said nothing.

"Right," he began. "Well, you know about those two foreign shinobi who tried to kill Nii Yugito last week," he said. She nodded again, this time with a distinct frown, and Rando chided himself in his head. If anyone knew about that, this woman would. "Well, according to reports, and testimony from Yugito now that she's awake, they weren't trying to kill her after all."

"What?" Rikuto broke in. "And when did she wake up? Why wasn't I told?"

"I'm telling you now," Rando said with a placating gesture. "It was just this morning, and the intelligence squad wanted to debrief her before anyone else spoke with her." He waited to make sure she accepted that before continuing. When she took a deep breath and visibly calmed down again, he went on. "Based on the forensics at the scene, Yugito's description of the battle itself as well as comments the two made to her, the current assessment is that they were trying to abduct her."

"Abduct her?" Rikuto repeated. Rando could see her processing the information, and coming up with the same conclusion he had: "Someone must be trying to gain control of her bijuu."

"That's what the intel squad figured. At first they thought it was an assassination attempt by the Leaf or the Sand, since she's one of our strongest Shinobi. They aren't so sure anymore, though. Not very many people outside the village know that Yugito is a Jinchuuriki. I'm almost certain nobody in the Leaf knows, and the Sand is even less likely to have that information. It's possible the Snow have become aware; our intelligence on them is sorely lacking."

"It most likely isn't one of our current military enemies," Rikuto said. "In a time of war they wouldn't be wasting their time trying to capture her, they'd just try to kill her. That's why we originally thought it was one of them, isn't it?"

"That's right," Rando said. "Also, Yugito managed to get a look at the hitai-ate from one of them. It was from the Rock, but it had a gigantic slash through it."

"A slash?" Rikuto repeated. Rando nodded. "A missing nin, do you think?"

"Most likely. According to Yugito, their style of dress matches the description of a rumoured organization of S-ranked criminals."

"When you say 'rumored', how much information do we actually have?"

"Very little at this point. The Fifth was in the process of starting an investigation when…well, you know."

"Rando, you're slipping," Rikuto said sharply. "Did it honestly not occur to you that there could be a connection? That's awfully convenient timing."

"True, it is," Rando agreed, "but that's hardly the only thing the Fifth was working on. Don't get so desperate for clues that you start seeing them everywhere, Rikuto-san."

"'Everywhere'?" she choked. "This is the closest thing to a lead you've brought me, and you didn't even think to mention it until now?"

"I had to work up to it!" he defended himself. "I'm trying to give you all the information I have in such a way that it all makes sense. And I never denied that there's a possible connection, I was just warning you not to set all your sights on it."

Rikuto snorted derisively. "I'm experienced enough not to fall into that trap, Senboshi. My question for you _now_ is do you have anything else useful?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," he said, glad to be in control of the conversation again. "All of this information was deemed top secret, and nobody except those who spoke directly to Yugito during her debrief are supposed to know about it."

"Who did that order come from?"

"Who do you think?"

"That proves it then!" Rikuto shouted triumphantly. "There _is_ a connection!"

"Calm down, Rikuto-san!" Rando pleaded. "You might be right. It's looking more and more like your suspicions have been correct all along, but what can we do about it at this point?"

"At this point? Nothing. We have neither solid proof nor means to act at present. Also, if an S-rank criminal organization is involved, it could be even more dangerous than I thought. But make no mistake, Senboshi. The Raikage murdered the Fifth, and he did it in order to start this war. You know the Fifth would never have allied himself with the Mist."

"You keep saying that, and even though I admit it's starting to look plausible, it just doesn't make any sense. Why would he do that? And how did he pull it off?"

"That's why I need you and your network," Rikuto said. "We need to find out how and why before we act, and you're the best there is at gathering information." She motioned to the door, indicating it was time for him to leave. He stood and made his way over to the exit and waited for her to douse the lights again before departing.

"I just hope I didn't make a mistake agreeing to help you," he said on his way out.

*

It was dusk when a very haggard and weary Chouji limped up to the western gate of Konohagakure no Sato. The guards looked at him, puzzled, but before they could say anything he spoke to them.

"I need to see the Fifth, immediately."

The two guards looked at each other, and then one of them nodded. The other sped off, and less than a minute later he was back with another ninja, apparently a replacement. "Come with me," he said to Chouji. "Hokage-sama is in a meeting at the moment, but-"

"This can't wait," Chouji plowed over him. "Trust me, she'll want to hear this right away." The guard didn't look convinced, but led Chouji on to the administration tower anyway.

"You're an Akimichi, aren't you?" the guard asked. When Chouji nodded, he continued, "I don't think we've met. I'm Nara Hotarou." One of Shikamaru's relatives, then. His friend's clan was relatively small, but every once in a while working in the academy he'd come upon one of them in some capacity or another. He'd taught a young girl of the Nara clan just this past semester.

"I'm Chouji," he said simply. He really wasn't interested in conversation, and was quite honestly becoming a little impatient with this man. That wasn't fair, he knew. This guy didn't have any idea how serious the situation currently was, nor what Chouji had recently been through. He was just trying to be friendly. In a time of war, that sort of thing was important to hold on to.

Whether Chouji's impatience showed or Hotarou simply didn't have anything else to say, the conversation ceased after that. They soon found themselves outside the Hokage's office in the administration building, arguing with a very stern looking man giving the appearance of guarding the door. At least, Chouji was arguing; Hotarou didn't really seem to care one way or the other. His job was done, Chouji thought wryly. Now he was just hanging around to see what all the fuss was about.

"Look, just tell her that Akimichi Chouji is here and has urgent news about-"

"I'll tell her when she's not in the middle of something!" the man snapped. He had a very snobbish tone. "The Hokage has many things to attend to, and just because _you_ think whatever it is you have to say is the most important thing she'll hear all day, I can assure you that it isn't. Now, you can wait over there in that chair," he pointed across the hall, "or you can go home and get some rest. You certainly look like you could use some. I will inform the Hokage that you were here, and a message will be sent to you when she can see you."

It was too much. Chouji was seconds away from forcing himself past the man when the door swung open and the Godaime herself poked her head out.

"Chouji?" she questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"I humbly apologize, Hokage-sama," the 'doorman' grovelled, bowing deeply. "This young man refuses to leave, despite my repeated explanations that Hokage-sama is indisposed and-"

"Enough, Suzaku," Tsunade silenced the man with a gesture. "Chouji, come in, quickly." She waved him into the room, and shot a severely annoyed look at the man called Suzaku, who was now gaping like a fish, before shutting the door firmly.

Chouji took a quick glance around the room. The only other people present were Shizune and Jiraiya. At least Suzaku had been telling the truth about this being an important meeting.

Tsunade turned back from the door and locked eyes with him. It was a comforting gaze, but strong, too. Chouji felt she could have earned her title as Hokage from that stare alone.

"What happened?" she asked immediately. "Where are Shikamaru and Ino? And why do you look so beat up? I take it the Rain refused our offer." She added the last part almost as an afterthought, and it was more of a growl than anything else.

"I don't know if they refused or accepted," Chouji told her. "I never made it to the Hidden Rain Village. I don't even know if it still exists."

"What?" Tsunade's eyebrows shot up. Jiraiya stood from where he'd been sitting casually on the Hokage's desk and came over to join the conversation.

"What do you mean?" the old man asked. "Where did you go, and what happened to the rest of your team?"

"Shikamaru and Ino are still in Ame no Kuni, trying to make contact with whatever's left of Amegakure no Sato," he said. "Whether or not they succeeded, I don't know."

"What do you mean 'whatever's left' of them?" Tsunade pressed. "Did something happen to the Rain?"

"When we got to what we're pretty sure used to be the Hidden Rain Village, Ino went ahead to scope things out. Somehow they detected her, and they sent some subordinates out to deal with us. Only…they weren't Ame-nin. At least not anymore. Shikamaru recognized from the way they'd marked themselves that they worked for the organization called Akatsuki." Both of the Sannin looked shocked at this news.

"Akatsuki?" Jiraiya questioned. "How can you be sure?"

"Well, I'd never heard of the organization before, but Shikamaru said the way they had marked their hitai-ate was unique to Akatsuki among missing nin. One might have been a coincidence, he said, but two was enough to convince him. He said he didn't even know they used subordinates; apparently the organization is supposed to be made up entirely of S-class missing nin." That part scared the hell out of Chouji, but he wasn't about to tell them that.

"That's true," Jiraiya nodded thoughtfully. "The core of the organization, as far as we know, is made up of nine S-class criminals who have banded together for unknown reasons. Their numbers were ten until Orochimaru defected several years ago, and for reasons we've been unable to determine, they haven't replaced him yet. It makes sense that they would have subordinates working for them, though. The nine of them can't be everywhere at once. My guess is that each of them would have their own underlings, rather than a network of ninja that work for the organization as a whole. That's just a guess, though."

"It sounds to me like you three may have stumbled onto Akatsuki's base of operations, if they even have one," Tsunade mused.

"Just as likely they stumbled upon the hideout of one of the individual members, or maybe one of the teams of two, but either way it's worth looking into," Jiraiya said.

"Can we really afford that right now?" the Hokage asked her old comrade. Chouji was feeling increasingly left out of this discussion.

"I can go," the old man said. "You can spare me for now, and I might be one of the few who'd be able to sneak in and out alive anyway." The Hokage seemed to consider this before shaking her head.

"No. We need you too much right now in the war against the Mist and its allies. The intelligence you collect is equal to everything else we put together, and if the village is attacked you'll be an important part of the defence."

"Tsunade, Akatsuki isn't going to just go away. We know what they're after…"

"I know," said the legendary kunoichi, holding up a hand to forestall him. "That means we don't have to go out looking for them – they'll eventually come to us, and we can deal with them then." The toad sage opened his mouth for a rebuttal but she kept right on going. "I can't deny that Akatsuki is a threat," she said. "Any other time, they would be our top priority, but I can't afford to make them that right now. We have to deal with the situation as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And that village might very well be their base of operations, which means any number of them could be there. Maybe all of them. Even you couldn't survive that, and I won't send you off to it."

Jiraiya still looked reluctant, but finally gave her a relenting nod. The Hokage let out a breath, which intrigued Chouji. It was as if she was worried the toad sage would have gone off anyway, regardless of what she said. Well, he supposed the old man very well could have done just that, but it still seemed odd.

"Thank you for bringing us this information," Tsunade said, turning back to Chouji at last. "I realize that it must have been very dangerous to come back here by yourself."

"There's one more thing, Hokage-sama," Chouji said. "On my way back, I was attacked. Not by Mist nin, or Rock or Cloud or Sound, but by Smoke ninja. It looks like our enemies have at least one ally already."

"Yes, we know," Tsunade replied gravely. "Messages have arrived from some other teams sent out as well. So far we know of the Smoke, the Ash and the Mud moving against us, though we don't know which if any are actually allied to our enemies, and which are merely after the bounty placed on all Konoha shinobi by the Tsuchikage."

"It would seem the Mud, at least, are only after the bounty," piped up Shizune from the edge of the room. Chouji had almost forgotten she was there. "Naruto-kun's message said they were the ones who revealed the bounty, so it stands to reason that's what they were after."

"You're probably right," Tsunade agreed. "But we still don't know about the Smoke or the Ash." She turned back to Chouji. "Did they say anything to you that might indicate one way or the other what they're in this for?" Chouji thought for a moment, but had to shake his head.

"There were two of them, and I only managed to kill one, but they didn't really say anything at all," he recounted. "The one who was still alive was in about as bad a shape as me, and I don't think he wanted to finish the fight, because he took off pretty fast."

"How close were you to the village when you were attacked?" Jiraiya asked.

"Maybe about a day," Chouji answered. The old man pondered this.

"I doubt anyone just looking to collect a bounty would want to get much closer than that, but it still isn't conclusive," he said. "I'll need to investigate this. If they're just in it for the money, it will be easier to dissuade them from attacking us further."

"That's something you can look into," Tsunade said. "Chouji, unless there's anything else you have to tell us, I suggest you get some rest. You don't look like you need any medical treatment, but I want you to take it easy for the next couple of days." She paused for a moment, then added, "There isn't anything you can do for your teammates from here anyway, so don't even think about trying to feel guilty. You've done your job, so let them do theirs."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," he obeyed. Well, on the surface anyway. She could tell him not to feel guilty all she wanted, but it wouldn't make any difference. His two best friends were facing who-knew-what while he was going to be sitting here lounging around. It wasn't right.

*

Five days had passed since the encounter with the Mist Swordsman, and going was slow. Daiichi was limping slightly, and Kenji's gut wound turned out to be worse than it first appeared, and for the first few days he would keel over in pain if he exerted himself too much. Sora was the best of all of them, except of course for the Swordsman who hadn't been injured at all. Sango could walk by herself now, but her ankle still hurt and her arm remained useless.

"I don't see why you insist on bringing that thing," Daiichi said to Kenji for the third time that day. Sango rolled her eyes. She didn't see why her brother was carrying that murderer's sword along either, but she knew there was no point talking to him about it.

"It just seemed like such a waste to leave it," Kenji said. "It's a really nice sword."

"It's a treasure of the Hidden Mist, handed down through the Seven Swordsmen generation after generation" the murderer piped up. "Or at least it was."

"See?" Kenji said proudly. "Too good to be left lying around in the woods for anyone to find."

"Ichigo-san," Sora said, and Sango bristled. How could her sister bring herself to address this man by name so calmly? "What can you tell us about the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist?" Sango swallowed her irritation at that, because it was something she truly wanted to know, though she doubted he would tell them anything useful. Most likely he'd come up with an excuse about not knowing much, or just outright say he didn't want to betray his comrades.

"There's really only three now, I guess," he said. "Kisame – he was the strongest of us – abandoned the village over fifteen years ago now. Zabuza left the village as well and was killed four years ago by a group of Leaf ninja. Tourou was killed, and they haven't found a replacement for him yet as far as I know, and then there's me."

"Is there anything you can tell us about the ones who are still _there_?" Kenji asked.

"Well, there's Kaito. Any one of you three could probably hold your own against him, and two of you together could probably beat him." He of course gestured to her three older siblings when he said this, not intending Sango to be part of that explanation of strength. It rankled her, even though she knew as well as anyone how much stronger her older siblings were than her. "He was always the best of us with genjutsu though, so watch out for that if you meet him," the Mist-nin finished.

"Where does he rank among all of you?" Daiichi asked.

"If you mean how strong is he, he would be the fifth strongest out of all seven," Ichigo said. "And the last one I'd recommend any of you trying to fight. Zabuza was the fourth strongest, and from what I heard it took the genius copy ninja of the Hidden Leaf to bring him down."

"What does his sword look like?" Kenji asked.

"Kaito's sword is the _Dokurokiri Kyotou,"_ Ichigo replied.

"That sounds pleasant," Kenji remarked, sticking his tongue out in disgust. Sango shared his sentiments.

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Ichigo continued. "A giant sword shaped like a sickle that's perfect for cleaving a person's skull open. Among other things."

"That's one of them," Sora said. "What about the other two?"

"Next up would be Noko, and I wouldn't recommend trying to fight him at all unless you're a kage or have at least three to one odds, all jounin. You can't miss him, either. He'll be the guy with a big hungry grin on his face and a huge saw for a sword. He's crazy, but no one's really sure how much of it is real and how much of it is an act. I wonder if even he knows."

"Sounds like a great guy, doesn't he, Aniki?" Kenji joked. Daiichi laughed, but Sango gagged. How could they stand to joke when a person who was just as bad as the men he was describing was walking among them?

"We'll take your advice into consideration, Ichigo-san," Sora said, obviously referring to his counsel not to fight the madman with the saw if they could at all help it. It was the first sensible thing to have come out of the man's mouth. "Now, about the last Swordsman?"

Sango wasn't sure if she imagined it or not, but it looked almost like the Mist ninja shuddered before he spoke.

"Last is Bantetsu," he said. "I say Kisame was the strongest of us, but Bantetsu could probably hold his own if the two of them ever fought. And he's the one that scares me the most."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Well, Noko's crazy. And even Kisame likes to have fun when he fights. But Bantetsu is just plain bloodthirsty. He doesn't just love fighting, he loves killing people. I think the only reason the Mizukage even puts up with him is because he's so good at it. And he specializes in groups. When the Kaguya clan revolted nine years ago, Bantetsu single-handedly fought off and killed the clan head and all six of his personal guards. There's no ifs or buts about it; if you ever see Bantetsu anywhere near a battle, run. Run as fast and as hard as you can until you run out of breath, and take as many of your allies with you as you can, because if you leave anyone behind, you'll never see them again."

"I really hope you're exaggerating," Daiichi said, albeit a little nervously.

"Not even a little bit," Ichigo stated plainly with a dark look on his face. It gave Sango chills.

Later, when they were setting up camp for the night, Kenji brought up something they missed.

"Hey, you freaked us out so much we forgot to ask you what this Bantetsu guy looks like, or what kind of sword he has. How will we know him when we see him?"

"You'll know," Ichigo replied as Daiichi and Sora tethered him to a nearby tree.

"Still, I think it would be a good idea to have at least a basic description," Daiichi said while he tied off the last wire and moved on to check the explosive tags.

"Well, he likes to dress in white or blue for some reason," the Mist ninja said. "I've never seen him wear anything else. And as long as I've known him, he's kept his hair in a big braid down his back."

"What about his sword?" Kenji asked.

"There's nothing really special about _Banryu _except for its size. And it's weight, I guess. Bantetsu and Kisame were the only people who could even pick it up. Its hilt is about two and a half feet long, and the blade is a good five feet, and at least a foot wide."

"How can he swing a sword that big?" Sora asked as she moved from the prisoner on the tree to the little girl watching the procedure dispassionately from the campfire.

"I honestly don't know," was the reply. "He gave it to me once, as a joke I think, to see if I could lift it. I almost threw my back out."

"I don't think I'll mind if I never get a chance to meet this guy," Kenji quipped, and with a signal to Daiichi, he was off to inspect the surrounding area one last time before anyone went to sleep.

"Are you cold at all, Ringo-chan?" Sora was asking the little girl. "We could get away with leaving the fire going for a few more minutes, I think." The girl just shook her head and kept her mouth shut like always. Sango rolled her eyes. Her sister had really taken to this Mist girl for some reason.

She was just about to lie down when Kenji reappeared among them, sooner than he should have.

"What is it?" Daiichi asked.

"Rock ninja," Kenji said. "At least one full squad, and they're on to us. I don't think they know I saw them, or they'd be here already. It looks like they're planning to ambush us within the next few minutes."

"How did they get so close?" Sora asked, picking up her scythe and checking the knives in her boots. Sango strapped on her boomerang from where it was resting against a tree, but with her left arm still out of commission fighting would prove difficult.

"It's their home turf, or close enough to it," Daiichi replied, swallowing a soldier pill. "But even with that in mind, these guys have to be good if they got this close without any of us noticing."

"We should head 'em off," Kenji suggested, pulling out a kunai. "If we fight here we're already on the defensive."

"I agree," Daiichi nodded. "We need to take the fight to them and catch them as off-guard as we can." He turned to Sango. "You stay here," he said. She was about to protest when he rode right over her. "Don't argue with me, Sango. We don't know how strong these guys are, and you're still injured from the last battle. I need you to stay here and watch these two." He indicated the two Mist-nin. "Can I trust you?"

"Yes, Onii-sama," she obeyed, bowing her head. It was more from disappointment and frustration than deference, though. When she looked back up, her siblings were vanishing into the trees.

"I can help them, you know," came a voice from behind her. Sango almost jumped, but held herself in check and spun to see the orange-haired Hidden Mist Swordsman addressing her.

"Right, I'll bet you could," she sneered.

"I'm serious," he said. "If your brothers and your sister are fighting a full squad of Rock ninja with the injuries they still have, they're going to need some help. You obviously can't help them, but I can."

"No, you can't, because you're tied to a tree," she snapped. "If you think I'm going to fall for this then you haven't been paying very close attention the last couple of days. I know exactly what you are, and there's no way I'm going to let you out of that while my family are fighting for their lives."

"They're fighting for my life too, you know. And my sister's. If even one Rock ninja makes it through to this camp, there isn't a lot I can do from here. And I'm not exactly confident in your ability to protect us, either."

She was about to shoot back a scathing retort when the shouts and clangs of battle reached her ears. She could hear her brothers' battle cries, and her sister yelling their names. She also heard several other distinct voices. There were at least five enemies fighting against the three of them.

"Onee-chan, Kenji-nii, Daiichi-nii, be careful," she murmured.

"I'm telling you, let me out of here and I can help them!" Ichigo shouted from the tree. "At least give me my sword!"

"And I'm telling you it's not going to happen!" She whirled around and yelled back. Just then she saw the little girl running over to where Kenji had left the sword propped up against a rock. "Oh no you don't!" she barked, and dashed to stand between the girl and the blade. "I'd rather not hit you if I don't have to," she said to the girl, "but I can't let you give this to him."

"Come on!" Ichigo cried desperately from his bindings. "Your siblings are going to die if you don't let me help! And so will you!" Right as he said that, the figure of her oldest brother came flying backwards into the camp, slamming into another tree trunk.

"Onii-sama!" Sango gasped. No sooner had her brother made impact than two Rock shinobi came bounding into the campsite, weapons drawn. Her sister and her other brother soon followed, along with four more enemies. The fight raged on around them, and though Sango had drawn her kodachi, she knew there wasn't much she'd be able to do with it.

"Hurry up!" Ichigo shouted madly. "This is our last chance! Give me my sword! Throw it now!"

A kunai stabbed Daiichi in the side and her decision was made. Dropping her kodachi, she reached behind her and grasped the hilt of the great butcher's knife. With precision grown from years of practice with her similarly-sized boomerang, she hurled it with all her might at the section of wire holding Ichigo she knew would not set off the explosive tags. The heavy blade sank into the wood of the tree and the wires drooped to the ground, and the Seventh Swordsman of the Mist sprang free from his bonds and into the fray.

*

Naruto and Sakura's return trip was only slightly shorter than their initial one. They set a faster pace, but they also took a more roundabout route in order to avoid further ambushes. They were at least successful in that. When they did arrive, Naruto wanted to stop for ramen right away, but Sakura was quick to remind him that they needed to speak to the Hokage immediately about what went on during their mission.

"Baa-chan will be happy that the Hidden Tree decided to join us," Naruto said jovially as they walked toward the administration tower.

"I'm sure she will, but she's not going to be very happy about your methods, Naruto," Sakura replied.

"Why not? Not only did the Tree end up joining us, but the Grass too! Plus we saved Kiba and the others from that army; they might have died, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura couldn't help but see the logic in his arguments, despite the fact that he went off-mission and completely ignored protocol pretty much throughout the whole thing. She just hoped her master could see it his way too. She sighed. "You're right about that I guess, but Tsunade-shishou has a history of becoming angry with you for acting on your own even if it does end well."

"Nah, she just gets on my case for being reckless, that's all. It's the geezers on the council who don't like me breaking rules. I bet I could save all of their lives and they wouldn't budge a bit in their opinion of me if I broke any rules to do it. Trust me, Sakura-chan; Tsunade-baba will be happy." He grinned at her, and she hoped for his sake he was right.

"You did WHAT?" Tsunade was yelling not five minutes later, springing up out of her chair and slamming her hands on her desk. Naruto actually had the grace to look sheepish, chuckling nervously and scratching his head, and Sakura was doing her best to make herself invisible. She was half tempted to use her genjutsu that would make her _actually_ invisible.

"It all worked out, you know," Naruto said. "The Tree is going to join us, and the Grass wasn't destroyed. They're probably going to join us too. I don't see what the big deal is."

The Hokage rubbed her temples and groaned. "The _big deal_," she began, trying and failing to sound calm, "is that you could have made an enemy out of an ally or at the very least prevented them from joining us, you interfered with another team's mission and could have blown it as well, and you almost got yourself and Sakura killed!"

"But I didn't," Naruto replied, simple as could be. Sakura smacked herself in the forehead while a vein in Tsunade's visibly throbbed.

"It's always about the end result with you, isn't it?" the older woman snapped.

"The end result's all that matters, isn't it?" Naruto yelled back, apparently having regained his nerve. "Everything turned out exactly like we wanted it and Shino's team is still alive! How can I look at anything _but _the end result?"

"Because you never stop to think about what would happen if things _didn't _turn out exactly right!" Tsunade practically screamed. That stopped Naruto in his tracks, and even Sakura was taken aback. She'd expected her master to be angry, but the woman seemed almost hysterical.

"What happens when you insult a foreign leader in one of your righteous outbursts and they decide they don't have to take it? What happens when you go off-mission and get in over your head, and I don't know where you are to help you? We have rules for a reason, you know. You think things like this are okay because you always come out ahead, but eventually something's going to go wrong, and you need to think about the people you'd leave behind if that happens!"

Sakura was struck speechless by this outburst, and clearly Naruto was too, since he wasn't saying anything and was in fact gaping at Tsunade like a fish in a bowl. The Hokage, for her part, took a deep breath and began speaking again more calmly.

"I'm not saying I'm not pleased by what ended up happening this time, but please, Naruto, think more carefully in the future."

"I will, Baa-chan," he answered heavily. "I promise."

"That's good," Tsunade said. "I know you keep your promises. Now, as to our current situation, it's going to be difficult to make a solid move until the rest of the teams come back. Sakura, I want you to resume your training; I should be able to work with you for a few hours a day at least, and when I can't you can work with Shizune or Kurenai."

"Understood, Shishou," Sakura said with a bow.

"What about me?" Naruto asked.

"I know you gave me your promise, and I trust that, but I don't want to put you in command of any more missions yet. That said, you're too valuable to be sitting around the village not contributing. When a mission comes up that I think would benefit from your abilities, I'll assign you to the team, but you won't be in charge. In the meantime, keep your skills sharp but don't wear yourself out; I don't know when I'll need to send you off and you might not get much notice."

"Got it," Naruto said. To his credit, he didn't sound _too_ disappointed.

"Well, that could have gone worse," Sakura said as she and Naruto made their way out of the administration tower.

"I guess so," Naruto said. "I never thought she'd get so upset, though."

"She's worried about you, idiot!" Sakura said. "She's afraid that something is going to happen to you and she won't be able to do anything about it."

"Yeah, I kinda got that," he said. "But I've always been this way and she's never freaked out like that before."

"Well, this is a new set of circumstances," Sakura reasoned. "We're in a full-blown war now and the stakes are higher in everything we do. Plus, this latest stunt was bigger than anything else you've ever done, and I think this has been building up on Tsunade-shishou for a while."

"I hadn't even realized," he said. He remained silent for a few moments, and then asked, "Do you worry about me, Sakura-chan?"

"Of course I do," she said without hesitating. "You're always doing crazy things like that, it scares me to death sometimes." She felt like they'd had this conversation already, but she couldn't be sure.

"Sorry," he said, and it sounded like he meant it. She sighed heavily.

"It's all right. To be honest, your sense of justice is one of your best attributes and I admire you for it, but I wish you'd learn some self-restraint to go with it." _At least until I'm strong enough to fight beside you,_ she amended in her head.

"I'll work on it," he said, and she rolled her eyes. Just like that he was back to his regular cheeky self. "How about that ramen now? My treat!" She closed her eyes and had to prevent herself from laughing ruefully. She didn't dislike ramen, but it did seem like they ate it a lot. Nevertheless, she found it abnormally difficult to say no to that grin.

"All right."

*

Konohamaru was ready to go insane. He'd only been a genin for two weeks, but it already felt like forever. Today was to be their third D-rank mission, which meant only one more before they would be eligible for their first C-rank under the current system. Assuming they performed well, of course. Their first mission could have gone better and their second…well, who would've imagined clearing squirrels out of an orchard could be so hazardous? It really wasn't his fault. Hanabi should have watched where she was going. It's not like he _intentionally_ threw a kunai with an exploding tag at her head. Iwashi-sensei had later admonished him for going overboard, saying squirrels were not a sufficient threat to warrant using such force. So _he_ said. The little buggers hadn't bitten him, and besides, even if it wasn't necessary, it made things go faster. Or it would have, if Hanabi hadn't gotten in the way.

They were meeting at their usual spot: the gazebo beneath the Hokage monument. Konohamaru was on his way there, wanting to be good and early so Iwashi sensei would see how responsible he was. Also, wanted to avoid the glare he knew Hanabi would give him if he was late.

Unfortunately for him, when he arrived it was to discover that Hanabi was already there, and she didn't look too pleased to see him. She was probably still sore about that whole explosion thing.

"Good morning, Hanabi-chan," he attempted. It didn't really have the effect he'd been hoping for.

"Think you can be a little more careful with your weapons this time?" she asked. "I'd hate for you to wasted a good sword or something on a dandelion." Rumor had it they'd be weeding a garden today. Joy.

"Look, I said I was sorry, all right?" he tried again. "I don't know what else you want from me."

"I want you to pay more attention," she said. "You aren't the only one who doesn't like doing D-rank missions, and you're messing it up for all of us."

"But how can you stand it?" he finally burst out. The girl probably didn't need the ego boost his question was about to give her, but he had to know. "You're even stronger than I am, but you keep carrying out these missions like they don't bother you at all! How do you do it?" Her eyebrows had shot up for the briefest moment, and now she had the strangest look on her face, like she couldn't decide exactly what she was thinking.

"You think I'm stronger than you?" she finally asked.

"Well, you are," he said. He hated that she made him say it twice.

"Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not," she said carefully. "Forgive me, but I wouldn't expect you to admit something like that."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he demanded. She started to answer, but he kept right on going. "Are you saying I'm stupid? Or that I'm arrogant? Only an idiot doesn't recognize when someone is stronger than him, and only a bigger idiot would pretend it wasn't true."

"No, I…" She stopped and gave a short laugh, probably to herself. "I guess you're right. I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. Well, maybe it is what I mean, but I didn't mean to mean that."

"Now I'm confused," Konohamaru said, scratching his head. The girl wasn't making any kind of sense.

"Let's just say I misjudged you and leave it at that," she said. He nodded. "As for how I can stand the missions, it's because I'm a shinobi. I will carry out the tasks assigned to me to the best of my ability whether I like them or not because it's my job. You should know that."

He opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out. She was right, of course, and he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been. Somewhere along the way, he'd lost track of what was really important; it wasn't about how much he could personally accomplish, but that whatever he did accomplish was for everyone in the village, and it was important that he did it well.

"Are you all right?" Hanabi asked after a minute or two. "You look like a fish."

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said. "You just reminded me of something I should have known all along. Thanks."

"Um…you're welcome." Somehow she seemed much more awkward saying that, and it made Konohamaru wonder. Had she never been thanked for anything before? Or was she just not expecting it from him?

"Good morning, Konohamaru-chan! Good morning, Hanabi-chan!" Moegi's cheerful greeting snagged both of their attentions, and whatever tension there had been in the air vanished. Less than a minute later, Iwashi-sensei appeared to take them on their mission. It did indeed turn out to be weeding a garden, and even though it was the lamest mission yet – not to mention one that could have been accomplished by five year-old civilians with sand toys – Konohamaru was proud to say at the end of the day that it went off without a hitch. For the first time he and his teammates all left for home with a smile, and they even walked together part of the way. Iwashi-sensei had looked pleased, and he hadn't fought with Hanabi all day. They just might get that C-rank after all, but even if they didn't, he reminded himself, whatever they did would still be important, and they'd get a chance for bigger work eventually.

On his way home he heard someone mention that Naruto was back from his mission. He'd have to drop in on his leader and tell him about the day's mission, and find out what happened on his. It was gonna be a great end to a good day.

*

Chaos surrounded Rikuto on all sides as she ran toward the safehouse just outside the center of the Hidden Cloud Village. Less than twenty minutes ago she had gone to check on her friend's condition in the hospital; Yugito was supposed to be released today and she wanted to be there. When she arrived however, things were not as she expected them to be.

"What happened here?" Rikuto demanded at the entrance to the special care wing. Two of the hospital's medical staff lay dead at her feet, and the ANBU she spoke to was apparently still investigating.

"We aren't sure, Matsumoto-san," he said, standing up to address her. "There was an attempt on a patient's life, but that's all we've been able to determine so far."

A sick feeling rose up in Rikuto's stomach. "Which patient?" she asked afraid of the answer.

"Nii Yugito," was the reply, and her fears were confirmed. Was someone trying to finish what this Akatsuki organization had begun? And if so, why wait until now, when Yugito was fully recovered instead of striking at her while she was weak?

"Weren't there guards posted at her room?" Rikuto demanded.

"Yes ma'am, there were. Two ANBU were stationed outside her room at all times, and a third inside. All three are dead." He said this calmly, when she knew he had to be upset about the death of his colleagues. There was a more important issue, though.

"Who could have done that? Were there multiple attackers?"

"We don't think so. Current analysis of the scene indicates only one aggressor. The strangest part is that we haven't been able to find a trace of Nii's blood anywhere. It's as if whoever it was just carried her off and she offered no resistance." The ANBU's words struck her directly in the heart. It _was_ Akatsuki. They were still after her bijuu, for whatever reasons they had.

"Are there any leads at all?" she asked.

"None yet, ma'am," the agent replied regretfully. "I know you were a friend of Nii Yugito, but I've told you everything I know. This only just happened, so we don't have very much information."

"Thank you," she said, and turned to leave. On her way out, she heard another ANBU yell, "Captain! It's the assassin! Somebody managed to track him and he's fighting his way out of the village! It's mayhem!" Rikuto dashed outside and sure enough, people were running about in a state of panic. Evidently the word of an assassin in their midst had spread. She took off, first thinking to go after the attacker herself, then reconsidered and headed for her nearest safehouse. Anyone in her organization would know to go to one of those in a crisis like this, and she would probably need help if this killer could take out three ANBU single-handedly.

When she threw open the door, she was nearly accosted by Senboshi Rando, who realized who she was right before they nearly killed each other. She really was in a state if he was able to get the drop on her like that.

Shutting the door quickly, she spoke as briefly as she could. "Senboshi! There's an assassin trying to leave the village! Are you the only one here?"

"Calm down, Rikuto-san," putting up his hands. "I know all about it; that's why I'm here. And no, there's one other person with me." He turned to the back room, concealed in shadow. "You can come out!" And from out of that dark doorway stepped the most wonderful sight Rikuto had ever seen in the form of a kunoichi with a long blonde braid and slanted, catlike eyes.

"Yugito!" Rikuto exclaimed, and abandoning all pretext, threw herself forward to embrace her dearest friend. "You're here! I thought you…" she didn't know what she thought, but tears began streaming out of her eyes uncontrollably and she was unable to finish her sentence anyway.

"It's okay, Riku-chan," Yugito said, using the nickname that had been abandoned since girlhood. "Rando-san got me out before she arrived."

"It was pure luck, really," Senboshi said from behind her. "I went in to check on her and saw that girl heading towards her room. There wasn't really anything suspicious about her, but something in my gut told me it wasn't right. I went around the side and pulled Yugito-san out through the window right as the ANBU in her room fell dead. She probably would have come after us to kill us, but Yugito-san set off an explosive tag she'd left to alert hospital security. It's a good thing, too. I would've been no match anyway, and Yugito-san has been in bed for two weeks. We got real lucky."

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck," Rikuto said, releasing her best friend and turning to face her best agent. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Senboshi." She bowed to him deeply.

"My pleasure," was all he said.

"Who was the assassin anyway? Someone from the Leaf? Or was it Akatsuki again?"

"I didn't get a good look," Yugito declared ruefully.

"I did," Senboshi announced. "And it wasn't an enemy ninja. It was someone from our own village."

"WHAT?" Rikuto and Yugito exclaimed simultaneously.

"This is it, then," Rikuto said. "There can be no more doubt that the Sixth is working against us and for whatever reason he wants Yugito out of the picture."

"I'm not so sure," Rando said. "I mean yeah, there's plenty of evidence elsewhere to point to that, but I really don't think he was responsible for this."

"Why on earth not?" Rikuto asked.

"Well, think about it. If you're going to have someone murdered who's under guard, and you have full control over who's in that guard, who would you put there?"

"I would put the strongest ninja possible I was sure my assassin could beat whose loyalty to me was in question," Yugito rattled off. Rikuto nodded; it was what she or anyone else with sense would do.

"Right," Rando said. "But of the three ANBU who were killed, at least one of them has shown nothing but absolute loyalty to the Sixth. And I'm not just talking about on the surface, either; remember who you're talking to." Senboshi Rando was notorious for his ability to read beneath things and come up with reliable information others often thought impossible to obtain. "Of the other two, only one would probably join us against the Sixth if anything happened, and all three were among the strongest ANBU in the village. Not the sort of combination I'd put forward for a situation like this."

"So either the Sixth didn't cover all his bases, which is unlikely, or whoever did this is working alone," Rikuto concluded. The other two nodded their agreement. "Things in this village just keep going from bad to worse."

By the end of the day, it was all over the village that the Ootori clan prodigy, 14 year-old Noriki, had killed three ANBU in an attempted assassination of Nii Yugito, and killed eight more Cloud shinobi on her subsequent escape. She left no wounded.

* * *

Since I want to keep Konohamaru and his teammates in the narrative but there isn't a lot for them to do while they're still on D-rank missions, this is the perfect time for some early character development. My only problem with that scene is while it seems a bit too short, there really isn't anything to add.

As usual, thanks to my prereader HitokiriOTD, who for the very first time suggested _adding_ "of course" to a phrase rather than removing it. =P

Translation:

Dokurokiri kyotou – "skull cleaving giant sickle" For this one I just put together the kanji of what I wanted the sword to be and then transcribed the reading. I couldn't find anything specific for the English "cleave", so I went with the generic "kiri", which means "cut" in just about every sense you can imagine.


	9. Episode VIII: Helping Hands Going Home

This chapter is freaking me out. I'm going into this not knowing how the hell I'm going to pull it off. I'm sure that fills you with confidence, but I'm just being candid.

SHINOBI WARS: Episode VIII – Helping Hands Going Home

"This is as far as you go."

The blue-haired woman said nothing more, and didn't even move, but her deadly cool voice accomplished more than any other form of intimidation possibly could. Shikamaru had absolutely no information on this person except that – judging by her style of dress – she was apparently a full member of Akatsuki. That meant she was likely to be at the same level as the other known full members, who so far were all S-ranked criminals and traveled in pairs. His mind was reeling, but he couldn't think of any way for both he and Ino to escape this situation alive without at least knowing what this woman was capable of, and who and where her partner was. As dangerous as gathering it would be, he needed more information.

"And you would be?" he asked, careful to keep his voice neutral and aloof.

"I am Kami-sama's messenger," she replied in that same cold voice. It wasn't the kind of answer he was expecting, and it threw him off for a second. That second almost cost him his life.

"Shikamaru, dodge!" Ino yelled right as he noticed himself; their enemy had somehow sent two larger-than-average shuriken speeding toward them. Shikamaru leapt to the side and sensed Ino do the same in the opposite direction. He was careful to make sure he wasn't being guided into a trap, and everything looked okay. The woman still hadn't moved.

He watched the shuriken go by. Its shape was a little abnormal, but it was spinning too fast for him to tell. After it was gone and nothing else happened, he got suspicious and chanced a glance over his shoulder.

"They're coming back!" he called to Ino. Their strange shape must have allowed them to curve like a boomerang, or maybe she had them on wire like Tenten used, or chakra strings like Kankurou. He dodged again, but was surprised once more. The shuriken did something new as they passed him the second time: 'unfurled' was the only word he could think of to describe it. When they did, dozens upon dozens of tiny little needles flew out at him. The woman still hadn't moved.

Determining that the needles must be poisoned since they were far too small to cause any kind of debilitating injury, he quickly performed a _kage kawarimi _to escape. The 'thunk' of a log hitting the ground indicated that Ino had also evaded the attack, but that was all he could discern regarding her at the moment.

He returned to his solid form and prepared a token counterattack with shuriken, but when he looked the woman was gone. He heard a noise to his left and turned to see Ino on a tree limb, and the Akatsuki ninja rising up, making a clean vertical slice with her hand. The tree limb fell to the ground, and Ino, with a very shocked expression on her face, slid into two halves.

"INO!" Shikamaru cried. Without even thinking, he launched the most powerful _kage nui_ assault he'd ever mustered. It traveled so fast that by the time the blue-haired woman hit the ground again, she was impaled by a veritable wave of pointed shadows.

At the moment of impact, his target dispersed into seemingly hundreds of tiny sheets of what looked like paper, eight of which were skewered onto his needles. He released his jutsu right as several of the sheets shot toward him spinning wildly, forcing him to lean backwards to avoid them, and confirming that they were in fact made of some kind of paper. He now understood the shape and behaviour of the earlier shuriken; if this kunoichi worked with paper, they may very well have been origami shuriken.

Even in his shocked and anguished state of mind, Shikamaru could not help but fall into his battle routine. He tried to think of a way to counter paper techniques, but he was having trouble focusing through the haze of his sudden loss. And those whirling paper blades were about to slice him to ribbons anyway. He'd almost decided to just get it over with when just as the first of the sheets was about to make contact with his flesh, a flurry of shuriken rained down on them, pinning them to the ground.

"You missed me!" taunted Ino's voice from every direction. Shikamaru felt as though his heart had just now begun beating after a lifetime of sitting idle in his chest. She was alive after all! The _bunshin _or _kawarimi_ or whatever it was she used was so convincing that he'd fallen for it too.

He rolled backwards out of his dodge and sprang to his feet, ready to defend or counterattack. He immediately saw why Ino's voice had seemed to come from everywhere: it really was coming from everywhere. All around him in every direction stood clones of Ino, prepping for battle or merely taunting.

He'd never seen her use this technique before, but he knew what it was. Naruto told him about her performance in the chuunin tournament that got her promoted. She created dozens of clones and rapidly traded places with them, so it seemed to the enemy like she was everywhere and nowhere. Good for a momentary distraction, but not much else against this caliber of opponent. That meant she was expecting him to come up with something in the short window of opportunity she'd provided for him. He only wished he had as much faith in his abilities as she seemed to. Had he really just contemplated giving up? That wasn't the way a ninja acted, and it certainly wasn't the way he, Nara Shikamaru acted. Not anymore, anyway. He needed to calm down and get his head in the game.

He gave his head one quick shake to clear it and began analyzing the situation. He knew it was too risky to assume his strategizing pose out in the open, so he drew a kunai and knelt holding it, as close to the position as he could get and still be on guard. He molded the chakra for a quick escape in advance in case he needed it.

He heard the ruffling of pages and saw in his peripheral vision the sheets of paper coalescing into a solid form again, minus the ones pinned by Ino. _'So is it a clone or an actual transformation technique?'_ he wondered. He needed to find out before committing to a strategy, since there was no point in escaping a clone only to be ambushed and killed by the real thing. And there was still the matter of her as-yet-unknown partner.

The sound of two dozen Inos suddenly abated, and he felt the real one take up a defensive stance by his side, facing the open area behind him.

'_I've got your back, Shikamaru,'_ he heard in his head.

'_I know you do,'_ he thought back, knowing she could hear him. He tried to send through every ounce of admiration he was feeling at that moment, trying to mentally bolster her as much as he could. Her clan's techniques were incredibly useful in situations like these where they couldn't risk being overheard, but there was a proximity limit and it required some of her concentration so he had to tell her everything he could very fast. _'She's using paper weapons and she can transform herself into paper, which means she has an almost unlimited supply of ammunition. We need to disable her somehow; our goal should be escape, not victory.'_

'_Any ideas?'_

'_Not yet. I'll let you know.'_

'_Know any fire jutsu?'_

'_None. Look out!'_

Ino flipped away just as the woman's bladed hand drove through where her neck had been. Shikamaru used the chakra he'd built up earlier to dash forward and stick her in the gut with his kunai and bound away. He could tell as soon as he landed the attack that it would have no effect, and the woman's body burst into hundreds of folded cranes at the moment of impact.

"A paper clone?" Ino gasped, dodging the cranes.

"Either that or her reaction time is near-instantaneous with her transformation," Shikamaru called back, cutting the cranes out of the sky with his kunai. That's when he got an idea.

"Ino!" he called. "How strong are you with the Hokage's strength-enhancing technique?"

"Not very," she called back. "Even Sakura's stronger with it now."

Her statement was significant; Ino never liked to admit to any inadequacies, and she hated admitting Sakura was better than her at anything. Nevertheless, it had to be tried. "Now's your chance to test it," he said, and threw a kunai into the ground near her feet. Hopefully she understood what he meant.

A very loud boom several moments later told him she had. He looked over amidst fighting off cranes to see a decent-sized crater beneath her, already filling with water. He jumped over to her and landed in it. "Hit it again! Now!" She did as she was told, if not knowing why, and a torrential wave of water surged up and out around them. The cranes too close to them were caught up in it and fell to the ground, too waterlogged to remain airborne or retain their shape. Knowing he had only seconds, Shikamaru formed seals as fast as he ever had in his life and prayed.

-

When the water subsided and the woman managed to pull herself together, Shikamaru and Ino had taken refuge in separate trees. Ino was preparing a batch of five kunai on a wire and Shikamaru had drawn three shuriken and a kunai with an explosive tag. The woman's focus shifted to Ino, but even as it did several razor-sharp paper shuriken hurled themselves toward Shikamaru. He dodged easily enough, but when they burst as they had done before, he wasn't as quick in dodging the needles and three of them managed to hit home. He fell in mid-maneuver and swore.

He called out to Ino. "You have to do it now or we'll never get another chance!" She nodded determinedly and threw her lead kunai at her attacker, whose arms had become very wide and thin. The Akatsuki woman dodged easily, but Ino wasn't through.

"Not yet!" she cried, and tugged on the wire, sending the string of kunai after her assailant once again. A second easy evasion, and Ino took to twirling the wire like a flail, keeping her opponent on her toes as much as possible.

"Any time, Shikamaru!" she yelled. "I don't think this is going to hold her off much longer!"

"If anything, I think you're just starting to annoy her," Shikamaru called back. "But it should be enough." He hurled his shuriken at slightly less than full speed, and right as the woman dodged he threw the explosive note right into her path at full power.

"Your efforts are wasted," she said coldly as a wall of paper rose up to shield her from the explosion. "And if this is the best you can manage, you might as well just give up now." She raised her arm almost casually and caught Ino by the leg in midair. The blonde had been attempting another explosive tag attack at point blank using the dust from the fist explosion as cover. With frightening ease, Ino was hurled into a tree and Shikamaru could hear her spine break on the impact. She coughed up blood.

"I might as well go for broke, since I don't think I can keep this up much longer," he said to himself. He formed the necessary seals and sent another _kage nui_ at his opponent, only this time, he sent each needle in its own random, weaving pattern. It would be much more difficult to avoid them all.

Avoidance, however, was not part of the dark woman's plan. She simply dispersed into several sheets once again, and let those that were impaled by the needles fall while the rest flew toward Shikamaru. When they reformed, his killer hovered over him with her arm forged into an origami blade. She said nothing before impaling him through the chest. At the moment of impact, Shikamaru witnessed three men with Rain _hitae-ate_ descending upon his murderer in silence. With a grin, he looked over at Ino, who was barely clinging to consciousness at the base of the tree she'd careened into.

"Did it," he whispered as he watched her vanish in a cloud of smoke. Half a moment later, he followed her.

-

The moment she could see again, Ino gasped and rushed to catch Shikamaru, who was collapsing to the ground. The instant the water rose up around them, she had seen him perform more jutsu in rapid succession than she had ever imagined him capable of. It was no wonder he was exhausted.

"We need to keep going," he told her. It pained her to hear his voice so strained, as if even talking was a massive effort. "I couldn't take us very far and those shadow clones aren't going to keep her busy for long."

"You're crazy," she admonished him half-heartedly as she swung him onto her back despite his meager protests and started running as fast as she could. "You don't have the kind of chakra reserves to be doing two _kage bunshin¸ _a _henge_ and a _kage kakushi_ at the same time. You're lucky you aren't dead from chakra exhaustion." She tried very hard to make her tone firm and scolding, but her concern for him was leaking through and she couldn't hold it back. Not to mention her heart rate was still winding down from the life and death struggle they'd just escaped.

"I suppose you had a better way of getting us out of there alive?" he asked. He seemed to be at least catching his breath again as she ran.

"That's not the point," she argued. "What good is getting us out of there alive if you die from the effort?"

He started to answer, but Ino did not hear. Her highly tuned senses detected an attack from her left and she leapt out of the way just as a six-foot blade swung through right where both of their heads had just been.

"Nice dodge," Shikamaru commented. "Looks like we've got ourselves another fight. You'd better put me down or you won't be able to move very well."

She set him down with his back to a large boulder and scanned the area for their attacker. She noticed him so close to the last second that the stone his sword sliced through had a few drops of her blood on it. From her new perch on Shikamaru's boulder, she finally saw her would-be killer. It was someone she knew.

"You!" she exclaimed. The Rain ninja named Jin'e looked up at her furiously, his sword held ready for another attack. It was long and narrow, straight and double-edged. On top of a surprisingly short hilt was an abnormally wide cross-guard. It was unlike any sword Ino had ever seen, but clearly just as deadly.

"It's regrettable that you were not killed by the traitor Konan, but fortunately I had the foresight to move on ahead should you manage to escape. Now I will kill you and my men will kill her, and two of the Hidden Rain's biggest problems will be gone."

"Unless you had more men than the three I saw attack her," Shikamaru said casually from his seat on the ground, "they're probably already dead."

"Fool. You think I, who knows the traitor's strength so much better than you, would take such a risk? My men are of sufficient numbers and skill to deal with her. And if they are unable, I will be back with them soon enough to help finish the job." He pulled his sword back ever so slightly. A thrust? Ino knew she only had one chance to get this right.

His strike was too fast for her and she received a huge gash in her right side as punishment. Even so, she did manage to achieve her main objective, which was to keep his focus off of Shikamaru, and her second objective, which was to tie up his feet.

"I'll get you back for that one," she grunted, and pulled hard on her snare. Impossibly thin strands wrapped around his ankles pulled him up, and wincing through the pain, Ino used all her strength to hurl him right through a tree. Ever since her fight with Sakura in their very first chuunin exam, Ino had experimented with the idea of using her hair as a tool in battle. Over the years she had become so proficient with the technique that a rope only a few strands thick infused with her chakra had the strength to swing a grown man around like a yo-yo.

Unfortunately in this case, her opponent did not seem particularly inconvenienced by her ingenuity. Ignoring his trip through the tree as if it were nothing, a quick swipe of his sword released him from his bonds and he used his momentum to rebound off the only other tree in the immediate area, launching himself straight at her. She had no time to prepare a defense.

Moments before impact, and almost faster than she could see, something zipped in under the Rain ninja's trajectory and launched itself off the ground with incredible force, taking Jin'e with it. They didn't come back down.

Frantically, Ino looked around trying to determine exactly what had happened and where her attacker would strike from next. She couldn't imagine why he would pull back or alter tactics when he was so close to landing a death blow, and whatever it was that zoomed in underneath him wasn't likely something of his. Evidently something or someone had intervened.

A large cloud of smoke appeared and she got her answer. Sort of. What she saw was a middle aged man with messy, graying hair sitting on what looked like a giant grasshopper.

"Oy! Looked like you two were in need of a little help!" he greeted jovially. Then he got a look at the gash in her side, and at Shikamaru leaning against the rock, pale as a ghost and practically hyperventilating. "You all right?"

"We'll live," Ino replied. "Thank you very much for…whatever it is you did."

"Don't mention it. I'm happy to help any Leaf ninja in need."

"Really?" Ino asked, a little surprised. "Who are you?"

"Name's Kuwabatake Sanjuro," he said with a proud grin.

"I've heard of you," Shikamaru panted. "You're practically a legend in the Hidden Grass, isn't that right?"

"More of a myth, really," Sanjuro said. "Reports of my greatness have been greatly exaggerated. Mostly by me." He said this, too, with great pride.

"We should go," Ino said. "That man wasn't the only dangerous threat around here, nor was he the worst." Sanjuro's eyes widened a little.

"How many people you got after you anyway?"

"A lot more than we can handle, to be honest," Ino said. "And he was a mouse compared to what we just escaped from."

"Well neither of you are going anywhere fast in the conditions you're in. Lemme help." He dropped down from his mount – which was as large as a small elephant – and bit his thumb, smearing a little blood onto each fingertip. _"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"_ Another burst of smoke, and a second grasshopper – this one about the size of a horse – appeared before them.

"Berami here'll give you both a ride, and I'll come along for a little ways to make sure you get out all right. It's a lot faster than you'd be able to go on foot, even in peak condition."

Ino stammered her thanks and went to help Shikamaru. When she leaned over to pull him up off the ground, she activated her telepathy jutsu.

'_I think we can trust him,'_ she sent.

'_It looks that way, and besides, we really don't have another choice. Either Jin'e comes back or that woman catches up to us. Either way, we're dead. I'll take an unknown over certain death anyday,' _he replied. _'I trust your judgment.'_

With that, she helped him up onto the grasshopper named Berami and then climbed up after him. "Can he carry us both?" she asked. The grasshopper turned his head back to her.

"Don't worry about me," he answered in a somewhat high-pitched twang. "I can carry twenty times my own weight. You guys are practically nothing up there."

"Let's go, then," Sanjuro announced. "Follow me, Berami!"

"Roger!"

The old man and his mount bounded away, and their own mount followed suit. The experience was exhilarating, and Ino had never felt anything like it before. With each leap, they were propelled forward at impossible speed, and soared through the air at heights of up to twenty meters. The wind in her face was almost painful (she could only imagine how it felt for Shikamaru in front of her), and each time they reached the apex of a jump and began to fall back down, her stomach was sent reeling. For a time, she didn't feel the pain in her side at all, and she found herself wishing she could do this on a day when it wasn't just because she was running for her life. It seemed like something a person might do for fun.

Ten or twelve minutes later, they came to a stop. Sanjuro instructed them to dismount. They had long since entered the border of Fire Country and judging by the familiar landmarks surrounding them, were less than a day's journey from Konoha.

"You should be able to make it on your own from here," Sanjuro said. "How are your first aid supplies? He looks like he could use a soldier pill." He indicated Shikamaru. "Maybe two."

"We have some; he didn't have time to take anything before we were attacked again," Ino said.

"Better do it quick; chakra exhaustion is not a pleasant thing. That should hold you over until you get home, at least. What about you?"

"I took a blood clotting pill and I have some salve and bandages."

"Good enough," Sanjuro nodded. "Boy, why haven't you taken a soldier pill yet?"

"I took one already," Shikamaru said. "It wouldn't do me any good to take another one."

"Shit, are you serious? Lie down right now before you fall over."

"We can't afford that; we have to keep going," Shikamaru argued.

"Like hell. I took you this far because I figured you could make it the rest of the way on your own, but you need sleep and you need it now. I'll wait here with you overnight just in case."

"I don't mean to be rude – we appreciate everything, really – but why are you doing all this? And what were you doing in the Rain country in the first place?" Ino asked.

"Funnily enough, both of those questions have the same answer," Sanjuro said. "Sit yourself down and I'll tell you all about it while your friend catches a few winks." He turned to his summons. "You fellas can get on out of here. Looks like I'll be here for a little while." Both insects gave a short wave before dispelling. It was an odd spectacle.

Ino pulled out her first aid equipment and started to treat her wound as Sanjuro made a little fire. It had torn slightly during the bumpy ride and now that she didn't have the adrenaline to distract her the pain was coming back in full.

She glanced over at Shikamaru and was pleased to see he was already fast asleep. She got up and pulled a blanket out of his pack and draped it over him, weighting it down with rocks so it wouldn't blow away. When she sat back down and started to doctor the hole in her side, Sanjuro was ready to start what he called his "little story."

SIX DAYS AGO

"_So what can you tell me about this 'Akatsuki'?" Sanjuro asked._

"_Not much, really," Naruto answered. "We know what they're after, but not why."_

"_And they're after Jinchuuriki."_

"_Right. They've come after me twice already. My friend Gaara from the Sand is a Jinchuuriki too, and we know they've targeted him as well, though they haven't attacked yet."_

_Sanjuro tried to process all of this information. It was a lot to take in; it wasn't every day you learned your brother had been captured by a band of S-ranked criminals who for whatever reason wanted the demon inside of him._

"_How did you escape?" Sanjuro asked. "I mean no offense, but my brother is probably a lot stronger than you, and they got him. And yet you say you've evaded them twice."_

"_I got lucky, really," Naruto answered. "The first time they were confronted by a group of four jounin from our village. I didn't even know about that until later. The second time Ero-sennin was with me."_

"_Who?"_

"_Oh, right," the young blond chuckled. "Jiraiya."_

_Sanjuro couldn't help but laugh. It was the first time he'd ever heard the legendary ninja referred to like _that_, but it certainly fit._

"_So you don't know anything else about them, like where they might be based or some of the other members?"_

_Naruto shook his head sadly. "I wish we did. I'd love to take the fight to those bastards for a change."_

"_It looks like I'll have to follow their trail to see where they took my brother," Sanjuro sighed. He was going to have to do this himself; there were not nearly enough personnel to spare at the moment._

"_I wish I could go with you," Naruto said. That surprised the older Grass ninja._

"_Why? You didn't even know my brother and you barely know me."_

"_I know that, but who cares?" the blond shrugged. "I like you, and I hate those guys. That's reason enough for me. Besides, I've never met another Jinchuuriki before besides Gaara. I want to help your brother."_

"_You helped enough just by caring and giving me this information," Sanjuro said. "It's more than I had this last night."_

"_You can say that, but it still doesn't feel like I've done anything," Naruto lamented. Sanjuro smiled._

"_Toshirou would like you, kid. You go all out in everything. That's just like him."_

_There was a long pause, and then suddenly the tone of the conversation shifted. Naruto asked a question he'd clearly been steeling himself to ask since the day before._

"_What was it like for your brother growing up?" he asked. "How did people treat him?"_

"_Not so good," was Sanjuro's reply. "From that sad look of yours I can guess it was the same for you, huh kid?"_

"_Yeah." There was another long pause, and then, "Sorry, old man."_

"_Huh? For what?"_

"_Well, Gaara and I had the same type of childhood. People hated us and were afraid of us and treated us like crap. In my case, I didn't even know why until I was twelve years old. It was nice to be able to share that with someone, and we're the same age so we can relate really well. But…well, it would have been really nice to have someone older who's been through it all too, you know? So I guess maybe wanting to save your brother wasn't all for his sake."_

"_Don't worry about it," Sanjuro said. "Nobody's completely selfless anyway. Besides, like I said, Toshirou would really like you. When he was twenty-five he just got fed up with the people of this village and went to live on his own. I'm the only person he keeps in contact with anymore. I think the way you've found so many friends and precious people would've made him really happy, you know?" Naruto smiled wistfully._

"_Now it's my turn to ask you a question," Sanjuro continued. "Why haven't you told that girl of yours the truth? She thinks what you did back there was some kind of kinjutsu."_

_Naruto, who had clearly not been expecting this question, was caught off-guard and stumbled around for a reply._

"_I just…it never…how am I supposed to…?" he trailed off and Sanjuro shook his head. _

"_Look, kid, I know what you're thinking. What if she doesn't accept it? What if she ends up hating you for it, right?" Naruto, in spite of himself, nodded dejectedly. "Well let me ask you this: how many people that you care about know?"_

"_Um…" Naruto pondered. "There's Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei, and the old lady and Ero-sennin. Shikamaru might have figured it out but I don't really know. I think that's it."_

"_And how many of them have shunned you or turned away from you?"_

"_None of them," Naruto answered simply. "But that's different!" he protested. "All of them knew beforehand, before we ever even met! They knew before _I_ did. It would be different if they knew me first and then found out. And what if they hate me for it? What if she hates me?"_

"_Why would she? Would the knowledge that you house one of the great beasts somehow change who you are as a person? I think, if this girl really cares about you, then it won't make any difference. If anything, she'll be more upset at you for keeping it from her if she finds out on her own."_

"_I don't know…"_

"_Well kid, I can't tell you what to do. It's your life, after all. Toshirou never really had that problem because everyone around here already knew what he was when he was growing up, but occasionally we'd meet people from other countries who found out. Some of them took it well, and others not so much. There was one thing my brother always used to say: 'If people don't know the real you they can't really like you. And if they don't like the real you then they aren't worth your time.'"_

"_But I don't want Sakura-chan to not be worth my time," Naruto bemoaned. _

"_Well like I said, I'll leave it to you. You just think about what I said. I need to start making preparations to track my brother, and you need to get ready to get out of here. I don't think Inago-kun is going to want to hang around very long."_

"_It was nice meeting you, old man," Naruto said._

"_You too, kid."_

_-_

Sanjuro related the story of the siege of the Grass and Naruto's involvement to Ino. He told her about his older brother's abduction by Akatsuki and his conversation with Naruto that gave him a place to start. Of course he left out the parts pertaining to Naruto's unusual guest, simply implying that the young blond and his brother shared a similarly difficult childhood.

"It took me an entire afternoon to find their trail, and it's impossibly thin. I'm probably moving at about half their speed trying to follow it."

"But we found Akatsuki!" Ino exclaimed. "Just a few days ago! We were running away from one of their agents when that man ambushed us and you arrived and saved us."

Sanjuro, who had not been expecting this, nearly choked on the bit of dried meat he'd been eating.

"You found them? Where? How?" he asked hastily after beating his windpipe with a fist and catching his breath.

"We sort of stumbled onto it, actually," Ino admitted. "We were looking for Amegakure no Sato and we found a place that we thought might be it, but it had been taken over by Akatsuki. We killed a few of their subordinates and escaped the area, but I guess one of their members managed to track us down."

"Where was this place?" Sanjuro asked almost feverishly.

"A few days west of the border near the southern mountain range. I have the coordinates written down if you want," she offered, and moved to her pack to retrieve them. Sanjuro held up his hand and shook her off.

"Thanks, but no. The two who have my brother were heading south. It's more likely they'll end up in River Country or even Wind Country. I'm guessing this organization has multiple bases of operation."

Ino looked disappointed that her information hadn't been helpful. "Oh," she said. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Sanjuro said. "Can you tell me anything about this agent you fought? Any intelligence at all would be useful."

"We didn't get to see much of what she can do," she told him, "but the jutsu we saw were all paper and origami-based. And physical attacks weren't very effective because she can transform into paper and disperse."

"I see."

"There's a little bit more. The members of Akatsuki are always supposed to travel in pairs, but she was alone as far as we could tell. And she didn't say much, but she called herself 'God's messenger'."

"We can only guess what that means," Sanjuro said, pondering. "But it's more than nothing."

"What are you going to do if you find them?" Ino asked. "Do you think you can beat them?"

"It's hard to say. My brother is stronger than I am, but he was defeated, though they had the element of surprise on their side. If I can get close enough to free him then maybe we won't have to fight at all."

"Good luck, Sanjuro-san," Ino said. She bid him good night (though it was still late afternoon) and went to sleep. She said it was so she could wake up early so he could be on his way, but he could tell she was much more worn out than she was letting on.

-

The woman known only as Konan surveyed the surrounding landscape with disgust. When she had allowed the two Leaf ninja to temporarily escape in order to lure out the two squads of Rain ninja lying in wait to attack, she hadn't expected Jin'e to be so incompetent as to let them escape from him as well. Though the evidence at the scene suggested outside interference, she couldn't help but be upset with herself for the blunder.

It had only taken a matter of minutes to deal with the seven men who now lied in bloody pieces strewn about the roadside a few miles back, but even in that short time her true quarry had managed to slip away. They would now be able to report the location of Akatsuki's base in the former Hidden Rain village, and Konoha would thus have the location of Akatsuki's leader, albeit without realizing it. Pein would not be pleased. Closing her eyes and sighing in resignation, Konan let the wind take her as her many sheets blew toward home and the rebuke waiting for her there.

-

Sora roused her siblings as soon as the sun came up. They were still a few days from home at their current pace, and they couldn't afford to be attacked again. They would never survive it.

"I'm up already," Daiichi said when she approached him. "Thought I heard something earlier but it was just a squirrel."

"There's a reason we're splitting watch, Dai-nii," she said to him. "You need as much sleep as you can get. I'm pretty sure I can still handle a squirrel."

"Instincts," he shrugged. "Plus fifteen or so years of training. Hard to ignore."

"Any trouble with our guest during your watch?" she asked. The man in question was still asleep as far as she could tell, and still strapped to a stump.

"Nothing," her brother answered her. "I don't know, Sora, I think we might really be able to trust this guy. We'd be dead twice over if not for him."

"I know what you mean, but it's still suspicious," she said.

"He took a knife to the shoulder for Sango," Daiichi reminded her, speaking of their fight with the Rock ninja in which their youngest sister had released him from his bonds and he had helped to save them all. "That gives him points in my book."

"I'm not saying I don't want to trust him," Sora said. "I guess I'm just afraid to."

"I'd be worried if you weren't," Daiichi said. "But it is looking promising. And once we get him home, Koorikage-sama will know what to do with him."

"If we ever make it home," came a third voice. Her younger brother Kenji was hobbling over to join them. Shirotani Ichigo's great sword was still strapped around his shattered right leg where they had applied it as a makeshift splint. It served the dual purpose of keeping tabs on the blade at all times while serving as better support than any wooden branch they could ever find, even if its length did make it slightly awkward for poor Kenji to walk.

"What's with the defeatism all of a sudden?" Daiichi asked. "That doesn't sound like you at all."

"I keep telling you I'm slowing you all down. You'd make it home faster without me, and in this situation every second counts. We won't last ten seconds if we're ambushed again."

"And I keep telling you it's not going to happen," Daiichi replied sternly. "You don't notice it because you're feeling sorry for yourself, but the rest of us aren't in much better condition than you. If it weren't for that sword being such an awkward splint, you'd be setting a better pace than both me and Sango-chan." Daiichi's skewer wound was nothing compared to his crushed toes, and Sango's feet had both been impaled clean through on earthen spikes.

"He's right," Sora said. "You need to snap out of whatever funk you're in and just focus on what's important, which is all of us getting home in one piece, so to speak."

"I'm sorry, Onee-chan," the hawk-nosed man apologized. "You guys are right, of course."

"That's fine," Sora said. "Hurry and go wake Sango-chan while I untie Ichigo-san and we can get moving." She turned to her oldest brother. "Dai-nii, could you wake Ringo-chan please?"

"Sure."

Soon their makeshift camp was bustling with the preparations for departure. Little Ringo ended up doing a lot of the work, since she was the only one among them still capable of running around. In addition to his shoulder wound, Ichigo had suffered a pair of shuriken in the back, a fire jutsu of some kind that he'd only mostly managed to jump over, and a black egg to the face. Even a full day later his eyes were still full of tiny crushed glass shards. It had to be excruciating, but he hadn't complained once.

They were about to set off when Sora sensed a presence nearby. A quick look to her older brother told her he sensed it too. Ready to face the end, she reached for her scythe.

"Sango-chan, if you can, I want you to get Ringo-chan away from here," she said.

"But…Nee-sama…!"

"Please, Sango-chan."

Sango held her gaze for several seconds, her lip twitching and her good fist clenched, but finally she slammed her eyes shut and nodded.

"Good girl."

"We really do have the worst luck, don't we?" Kenji remarked wryly. He had drawn his weapons as best he could.

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck," Ichigo intoned. He seemed to have already accepted the inevitable. Kenji had begun unraveling the bandages that strapped the former Mist ninja's sword to his leg, but everyone knew it would do little good.

"HOLD!" bellowed a familiar voice from out of sight. Seconds later, its owner came into view, and Sora had never been more relieved in her life.

"Masanori!" she exclaimed ecstatically at the sight of a man she knew quite well. Shimoda Masanori was a jounin with a high reputation for someone as young as 24. She had not known him long, only since becoming a jounin herself, but she liked him very much. He was a very gentle and friendly man whose easygoing manner belied his lethal skill and power.

The others echoed her cheerfully surprised greeting. Even Ichigo and Ringo, who obviously did not know the man, were pleased to see that he was clearly a friend and not an enemy.

"What's happened to you all?" Masanori asked, taking in their injuries.

"We've been in a few fights," Kenji said. "But you should see the other guys."

"Who are your friends?" the newcomer asked.

"This man here is Shirotani Ichigo," Daiichi explained, gesturing to the swordsman. "He is former member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, but he has recently defected from Kirigakure and become our voluntary prisoner." If this news surprised Masanori, he did not show it. Daiichi went on. "This girl is a refugee we encountered," he said. "She says her name is Ringo, we have agreed to take her under our protection. She appears to have had some degree of shinobi training, but we have no reason to believe she is of any threat to us or the village." Sora smiled at her older brother. He hadn't even had to lie. She could see Sango trying to hide a scowl, but the girl said nothing.

"I see," Masanori said. "Well, I'll honor your pledge for the time being and I'm sure the Koorikage will as well until we can figure out what to do with her. Can I assume you could use some help getting home?"

"That'd be great," Kenji said. "But aren't you in the middle of something? You don't have a team with you, do you? What kind of mission are you on?"

"Reconnaissance only," Masanori said. "A lot like yours, really. The Koorikage wanted to send out a second wave of individual shinobi after the first batch of teams."

"If it wouldn't disrupt your mission too much, Masanori, we'd love your help," Sora said. "We aren't exactly moving at top speed these days and we're a little vulnerable."

"A little jumpy, too," the man laughed. "You all had the look of folks facing down their deaths a moment ago, but I still got the feeling you could have killed me if you had to."

"If it was just you, maybe," Daiichi joked. "But you're sure you can take the time?"

"Hey, the lives of my comrades take precedence," Masanori said. "If the Koorikage or the council have a problem with that, they can shove it up their – "

"Thank you, Masanori-kun," Sora cut in with a furtive glance to Ringo. The girl had probably heard such talk and worse before, but it still didn't seem proper.

And so the seven of them set out together, Masanori helping each of them with injured feet or legs walk in turn so as to ease the effort a little. They still had several long and tension-filled days ahead of them.

As they left their camp behind, Kenji brought up the rear with Daiichi and Ichigo right in front of them. "No such thing as luck, huh?" the hawk-nosed man remarked.

Ichigo closed his eyes and smiled almost imperceptibly. "That's right."

-

Ino awoke before the sun rose the next morning to find Sanjuro still standing watch over their makeshift camp, and Shikamaru still sound asleep. Neither particularly surprised her.

"You shouldn't be up yet," he said without turning to face her. "You used up a lot of your reserves yesterday."

"That's true," she admitted, "but I'm worried about Shikamaru. I'll feel better once we're back inside the village and Tsunade-sama can have a look at him."

"He should be fine; he just overtaxed himself. He's just going to have to take it easy for a week or so."

The two of them made small talk until the sun rose and Ino decided they couldn't afford to wait any longer. She gently shook Shikamaru awake.

"What is it?" he asked groggily. She was pleased to see that his face had recovered a bit of its color.

"It's time to get going," she told him. "We're less than a day from the village. Do you think you can travel?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest," he said.

"He shouldn't travel in that condition," Sanjuro interrupted, coming up from behind them. "I'll loan you Berami again. You should get back to your village in less than half an hour that way."

"Really?" Ino asked.

"Easily. Just make sure to give him a rest for a minute or so along the way, and he can dispel once you arrive. Tell that Uzumaki kid hello for me. And the others, too."

"Thank you very much, Sanjuro-san," Ino said with a bow. "For everything. I hope you find your brother."

The farewell was short and brisk, and soon two enormous grasshoppers were bounding away in opposite directions.

"What did you two talk about yesterday while I was asleep?" Shikamaru asked.

"Oh, this and that," Ino said evasively. "It turns out he's hunting Akatsuki. I told him what we learned, and he said the two he's following are headed toward a different base than the one we found."

"That's valuable information," Shikamaru said. "Anything else?"

"Not really, except that he really likes Naruto," Ino said cheekily.

"Doesn't everybody?" Shikamaru replied with a smirk.

The truth was, Ino had gleaned quite a bit from her conversation with the older Grass ninja. She wasn't sure what a lot of it meant, but it had given her something to think about. Ino was never one to be content with guesses based on bits and pieces of information. She couldn't stand not knowing things – it was one of the reasons she enjoyed gossip so much - and if there was something she wanted to find out she usually did. She'd be asking some questions and doing some research when she got home.

Not even ten minutes had passed when Ino, Shikamaru and Berami were stopped by a patrol of Leaf ninja. They had been expecting it, and the only real surprise was that it had taken so long.

"You wear Leaf _hitai-ate. _Who are you?" demanded the squad's leader. He was a chuunin Ino vaguely recognized.

"Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino," Shikamaru announced. As a jounin, he was more likely to be recognized, and indeed he was.

"Nara-san, what has happened to you?" the man asked.

"It's a long story," Shikamaru said. "This grasshopper is a summon, and he's helping us return home to the village."

"I'll have two of my men escort you."

"We'd appreciate it, thank you," Shikamaru said. "Though I don't know if they could keep up."

"What do you mean?" one of the ninja who had stepped forward to escort them asked. He sounded a little indignant.

"Don't take it personally," Berami said. "I don't think there's a human alive who can keep up with me. How far from your village would you say we are right now?"

"About four, maybe five hours," one of them said.

"I can cover that ground in twenty minutes," Berami declared casually. "Give or take." The eyes of every man in the patrol squad went wide.

"Seriously?"

"Of course. I'm the fastest of all the grasshoppers. It's pretty much all I do."

"You are?" Ino asked. "I didn't know that. I guess that's why Sanjuro-san loaned you to us."

"That's right," Berami confirmed. "He wanted you to get home as quickly as possible. There's no one better than me for that."

"I won't keep you then," the commander said. "You probably won't have any trouble at that speed, but just in case, be on the lookout for bounty hunters. There's a standing price on the head of all Leaf ninja, and we've had more trouble with fortune-seekers from Mud, Ash and Smoke this last week than we have from any of our actual enemies."

"We'll keep that in mind; thanks for the warning," Shikamaru said.

"Are you ready to go, Berami?" Ino asked.

"Yeah," the giant insect replied. "I think I've caught enough of a break that I can get you back in one go from here."

"Don't strain yourself," Ino cautioned. "If you think you need to rest for a few minutes, please do so."

"Roger," the bug answered. "Hang on." And Ino barely had time to do just that as their friendly mount bounded onward once more at ludicrous speed.

They came to a stop just outside the gate so they could announce themselves. It wouldn't do them any good to go charging into the village and have everyone thinking they were attacking. When one of the sentries came out to greet them, she was met with a surprise.

"Naruto?" she gaped.

"You're back!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Chouji'll be thrilled. He's been freaking out about you guys." He paused in his enthusiasm to take a closer look at them. Her captain had fallen asleep again and still looked completely worn out. "What happened to Shikamaru? And how did you get that wound? Are you all right? And why are you riding one of Crazy Cricket Guy's grasshoppers?"

"We're all right, Naruto," she said. "Shikamaru's just exhausted; he used way too much chakra. This wound isn't as bad as it looks, but thanks for asking." She smiled. "And we met Sanjuro-san on our way home. He saved our lives, in fact, and he lent Berami here to us so we could get home. In our conditions we might not have made it for another two weeks or more."

"If at all," Naruto said gravely. "There are bounty hunters everywhere."

"That's what we heard," she replied. "Is it really that bad?"

"We've lost eleven shinobi this week," he told her. Mostly chuunin, but we even lost Madarame Shinichiro and he's been a jounin since before we were even in school. And they got a team of genin, too."

"No!" Ino gasped, horrified. Naruto nodded solemnly.

"They were taking their day off to do some training of their own on the outskirts of the village while their jounin sensei was on a mission. From what we pieced together afterwards, the bounty hunters were all chuunin and jounin from the Ash. They never stood a chance."

"I can't believe it's gotten so bad," Ino said.

"Neither could I," he replied. "Sakura-chan and I just got back yesterday ourselves, you know. Baa-chan says they're doing everything they can to catch these bastards, but there's just too many of them and our enemies take up most of our focus."

"In that case, I hope your mission went a lot better than ours did," Ino said dejectedly. At that, Naruto's mood brightened slightly.

"Sorry yours didn't go well," he said, "but at least you all got back okay. As for ours, the Tree is going to help us. The Grass, too."

"That's wonderful!" Ino exclaimed. Almost at once a great invisible weight in her gut lightened significantly. "Oh, that really will help a lot!"

"I hope so," he said. "But you guys should really get going to the hospital. Sakura-chan is there right now helping Shizune-neechan, so let her know you're all right when you get there. She's been really worried too."

"She was, was she?"

"She couldn't help it, no matter how many times I told her and Chouji you guys would be fine," Naruto grinned.

"Why would you say that? Are you saying you weren't worried?" Ino asked, curious.

"Not really," he answered. "Shikamaru can handle himself. And he's always talking about what a great kunoichi you are, and he would know."

"He is?" Ino felt the sting of tears in her eyes that had nothing to do with the sadness of losing so many comrades and a pang in her chest that had nothing to do with her stab wound.

"Yeah. Plus, I saw you fight up at the Snow, so I knew what he was talking about. I don't need to waste time worrying about you guys."

"Thanks, Naruto."

"Huh? For what?"

She just laughed and shook her head. "Never mind. You'll come by the hospital later, right? I think Shikamaru would want to talk to you about what happened on our missions."

"You bet," he said. "I've only got another hour or so here anyway."

"Talk to you later, then," she said, and Berami bounded off once more, though inside the village he had to be a little more careful about where he was jumping and what he was jumping on. They reached the hospital quickly and he bid them goodbye before disappearing.

Medic nins came running out toward them, for which she was exceedingly grateful. Supporting Shikamaru was murder on her wound.

"What happened?" one of them asked, already directing two of his fellows to relieve her of her burden. They took Shikamaru from her and placed him on a stretcher. He'd already fallen back asleep after waking up long enough to get off of Berami.

"My captain may be suffering from mild chakra exhaustion and I'm bleeding," she said simply, indicating the wound on her side. The bandages had almost completely soaked through, even with the salve she'd applied.

"Come with me," the medic told her. "Those two will see to your captain."

And so Ino was swept into the hospital, down the hall in into a small room with a bed and a window on it. It made her feel better to know that this medic did not consider her injury serious enough to require the emergency room.

"Please sit down there and remove your top," he instructed her, indicating the bed. She did as she was told and he came over to inspect the gash.

"You're lucky; it's not very deep," he said.

"I saw it coming at the last second," she told him. He nodded.

"You've taken a blood-clotting pill?" he asked. It was her turn to nod. "And you've applied field salve too. Good." He took a small cloth and wet it with something, then dabbed at the wound. She winced and sucked in a breath.

"Sorry," he said. "I should've said something. This stuff stings for a moment, but I'm just making sure the cut is completely disinfected before we close it up." He dabbed at it a few more times and then gently wiped it dry with another cloth, apparently satisfied.

"Since your injury isn't particularly serious, I'd like to give one of our trainees the opportunity to perform the chakra aspect of the operation," he said. "I won't do this without your consent, of course."

"No, that's fine," Ino said. Her doctor left the room and came back a moment later with another person. Someone Ino knew quite well.

"Ino!" Sakura squealed and rushed over to give her friend a hug. "You're back! Chouji said you wouldn't be back for days yet. We were really worried about you two. Is Shikamaru okay?"

The sound of the doctor conspicuously clearing his throat brought Sakura back to her professional demeanor.

"_Sumimasen deshita, sensei,"_ she said to him with a bow. Turning back to Ino, she said, "Deguchi-sensei is going to temporarily sew your wound closed, and then I'm going to knit your flesh back together with chakra and we'll remove the stitches. You should barely have a scar, if you end up with one at all."

"Sounds good," Ino said.

"Hold on and I'll anesthetize you," Sakura said. She formed a few seals and then took her index finger and quickly jabbed three points around the wound. Immediately all pain and feeling in the area was gone. "That'll wear off in a half-hour or so," Sakura told her. Then the two medics went to work. Ino didn't talk during the procedure, so as to allow Sakura full concentration. She really seemed to know what she was doing, which was very impressive considering how recently she'd taken up medical ninjutsu. Of course, this was a relatively simple procedure, but it was certainly more than she herself could ever do.

When it was over, Ino could barely make out the faintest of scars, and thanked and congratulated Sakura on her work.

"If I were better you wouldn't have a mark at all," Sakura said.

"Hey, do I look upset about it?" Ino came back. "I'm just happy I'm not bleeding all over the place anymore. And no one would ever see it if they weren't specifically looking for it. You really did do a great job. Thanks." That seemed to perk the pink-haired girl up a bit.

"Haruno-san," Deguchi-sensei said. "I'll give you your break early today so you can talk with your friend, but make sure you're still back on time."

"I will. Thank you, Sensei," Sakura said. He left.

"So how is Shikamaru?" Sakura blurted out the minute the door closed, pulling a chair over next to the bed. "You seem cheerful enough, so he must be all right,"

Ino sat up, already tired of having to lie down, especially since there was no longer anything wrong with her. The feeling was already starting to come back in her side and she wasn't sore at all.

"He'll be fine, he just really overdid it is all. He has all the signs of chakra exhaustion, but it isn't serious, thank goodness."

"Kakashi-sensei had that happen once," Sakura said. "On our first big mission. I've come close a few times myself. It isn't fun."

"It doesn't look like it. The poor thing's so pale, and he can't stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time."

"He'll be fine in a week or so," Sakura said. "He just needs rest. More importantly, how did you guys make it back so fast? Chouji said you probably wouldn't be back for a least a week, and maybe longer. And with your injury and his condition…"

"We ran into a friend of yours," Ino said. "Or a friend of Naruto's, anyway. Kuwabatake Sanjuro. He leant us one of his grasshoppers and we got a ride."

"Wow, that was lucky," Sakura marveled.

"You're telling me," Ino agreed. "He saved our lives."

"Really?"

"I'll tell you more about it later," Ino promised. "I really shouldn't talk about it until we've given our report to Hokage-sama. But Naruto tells me your mission was a success?"

"It was!" Sakura announced happily. "But when did you see Naruto?"

"When we got in. He was on sentry duty," Ino explained. Her friend laughed.

"Oh right, I forgot about that! Ha ha ha!"

"Why does Hokage-sama have him out there?" Surely Naruto's talents could be more useful elsewhere.

"He volunteered," Sakura told her, still chuckling.

"What?" She could hardly believe it. Sentry duty was exactly the kind of thing Naruto always complained about it. What had she missed?  
"It's a long story, but he says he's trying to humble himself a bit. His words, not mine, I swear. Also, Konohamaru has been griping about all of the D-rank missions he's been doing that he says 'aren't worth his time', so Naruto decided he should set a good example or something."

"Are we talking about the same Naruto?" Ino asked, incredulous. It certainly didn't sound like the boisterous, hyperactive ninja she knew.

"I'm just as shocked as you," Sakura confessed, "but I can't say I'm unhappy about it."

"It's almost like he's growing up," Ino quipped.

"Almost," Sakura agreed with a fond smile.

The two of them continued to chat until Sakura's break was up. They deliberately avoided discussing the bigger issues facing the village and focused more on insignificant gossip. It was fun, and a welcome distraction from the stresses of the war. When Sakura left, Ino got up and crossed to the next ward to visit Shikamaru. She was unsurprised to see him still asleep, but at least there was someone in there she could talk to.

"Chouji!" she squealed in delight. He stood and turned to greet her with his usual friendly smile.

"I'm glad you both made it back safely," he said. "Sorry I couldn't be there to help."

"Don't worry about stupid stuff like that," she said, waving it off. "You did your job. I'm sorry you had to make it back here all by yourself. It couldn't have been easy with all those bounty hunters I keep hearing about."

"Fortunately I only ran into one pair of them," he said. "I don't think I would have survived any more."

"Don't even talk like that," Ino said. "We're all back home safe and that's all that matters."

"Speaking of that, how did you get home so fast? I only got home a couple of days ago myself."

Ino told him the story of meeting Sanjuro and riding Berami. He seemed impressed. "That sounds like it would have been a lot of fun," he said.

"That's what I was thinking," she told him. "It would probably be a blast if we weren't injured and running for our lives. Even with that, it was really exciting."

"Did you find the real Hidden Rain village?" he asked.

"We did," she told him. "The day after you left, actually, and by accident. We didn't even realize it until the next day. The bad news is, they'd already joined with our enemies and they tried to kill us."

"I should have been there," Chouji chastised himself again.

"Stop that right now!" Ino scolded him. "You had no way of knowing what was going to happen on the rest of that mission and neither did we. You had a job to do, same as us, and you did it. You nearly got killed yourself, you said. So stop feeling guilty this instant!"

Chouji laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Ino. You're right; I'll stop."

"That's better," she declared, crossing her arms and nodding in satisfaction.

"Can you do me a favor?" he suddenly asked.

"Of course," she said. "What is it?"

"Are you going to be here for a while?"

"Until he wakes up."

"Then can you make sure someone notifies me when he does? I've stayed here longer than I should already. I was supposed to be getting back to work this afternoon when I heard you two were back."

"Of course I will," she assured him. "I can probably ask Naruto to send a clone after you. He said he was going to be coming by."

"Oh wow, was the Hokage angry with him yesterday," Chouji mused.

"What?" Ino jerked, smelling juicy gossip. "Why?"

"I should probably let him tell you," Chouji dodged. "I'll see you later, Ino." He ducked out the door, avoiding her attempts to get him to spill his guts.

"Well that's weird," Ino said to herself, returning to Shikamaru's bedside and sitting in the chair Chouji had been using. "I thought the Hokage really liked Naruto. She always seems to let him get away with everything." She looked down at Shikamaru sleeping peacefully. His chest was rising and falling steadily and he was actually starting to get some of his color back. She sighed.

"You idiot," she intoned fondly. "Why did you have to go and do something like that? We could have figured a better way out of there." She wanted to reach out and stroke his face, but she knew that would wake up him and he needed his sleep. She contented herself with just talking to him.

"If you think I would have let either of us die right after you finally got the balls to kiss me, you're even dumber than I thought," she said. "I don't even know what you were thinking when you did that. It wasn't really the time for that sort of thing, you know. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I'd do it again in a second. It was just so unlike you." The urge to touch him was unbearable. She wanted some form of contact – even just resting her hand on his arm.

"Hurry and wake up so I can touch you without feeling guilty," she grumbled. "Stupid shinobi training. A normal person would stay asleep if someone just held their hand or something." She contented herself with placing her hands on his bed near his side, though even with that she had to be careful not to alert him. She was congratulating herself on her success when a large bang echoed through the streets right outside the window followed by irritated yells and Shikamaru jerked awake. Ino cursed.

"What is it?" he asked, slightly disoriented. He tried to get up, but Ino gently placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down.

"Shh, don't worry about it," she said. "If it was an attack or something people would sound afraid or determined, not annoyed. Somebody probably just knocked over a store display or something. You go back to sleep."

"You're healed already?" he asked her.

"It wasn't that bad, really. Sakura fixed me up a little while ago. I'm supposed to stay until tonight for observation, but that's fine with me since I was planning on staying here with you anyway."

"You don't have to," he told her.

"I know," she said simply.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked.

"That one's hard to answer," she said. "Technically, a little under an hour, but you haven't really been awake for more than three minutes at a time since yesterday afternoon."

"Oh," he said. Then his expression turned serious and he locked eyes with her. "Did you find out if Chouji made it back okay?"

"Yes, he's fine," she said. "He got into a fight on his way back and got a little banged up, but nothing serious. He was in here earlier. I'm supposed to send him a message to let him know you woke up, but I really think you should go back to sleep for now. Naruto's coming later, and I know you'll want to talk to him too."

"I do, thanks. Has Hokage-sama said when she wants to speak to us?"

"I haven't heard anything yet," she said. "I think she's waiting until she knows you can stay awake long enough to get through your whole debriefing."

"Well, I think I can manage it," he said snidely, though the effect was diminished by the act of sinking back into his pillow.

"You get some sleep and I'll wake you back up when Naruto gets here," she said. Before he drifted off, she leaned over him and kissed him softly on the forehead, then took his hand so she could hold it while he slept without waking him. He was asleep by the time she sat back down.

She didn't have to wait for long. Naruto came by about twenty minutes later, and she asked him to send off a clone to tell Chouji that Shikamaru would be awake for a little while if he wanted to stop by. Naruto did so, and then she gently shook her teammate's hand and he slowly opened his eyes. She didn't bother to let go.

"Good to see you're alive, Shikamaru," Naruto greeted cheerfully with his usual bluntness.

"Just my luck one of the first people I have to talk to upon getting back is you," Shikamaru shot back.

"What happened, anyway?" the blond asked.

"The idiot tried to do too much is what happened," Ino supplied. "After he'd already been fighting, he tried to pull of two _kage bunshin,_ a _henge_ and a _kage kakushi_ at the same time."

"Wow, really?" Naruto asked. "I didn't even know you could do the _kage bunshin_, Shikamaru."

"Whose clan do you think invented the technique, you dolt?"

"Oh yeah, I guess that does make sense," Naruto said. "I never really thought about it before. Now that you mention it, I think your clan's name was written with the technique on the forbidden scroll. I wasn't really paying attention to that part at the time."

"The point is, I didn't deplete my chakra reserves, I just overextended myself, so it's not true chakra exhaustion," Shikamaru explained. "So I should be out of here in a couple of days."

"As great as that would be, I'm going to wait to hear a genuine medic nin say that before I let you go anywhere," Ino declared.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but Naruto decided it was time to change the subject. "So tell me about your mission," he said. "I already know the Rain betrayed us, but what else happened? I heard you guys found Akatsuki." He seemed exceptionally interested in that, though he was clearly trying to hide it.

"We did," Shikamaru confirmed. "And what's worse, they found us just as we were leaving. That's how we ended up in here in the first place."

"But why would they come after you?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "As far as we know, they're only targeting people with…well, never mind. You shouldn't have been on their list." Ino did not miss that Naruto had been about to say something classified. Nor, she could tell, had Shikamaru. They both decided to let it go for the time being.

"I think it has something to do with us killing two of their subordinates," Shikamaru remarked dryly. "Or, less humanitarian, simply because we stumbled on one of their hideouts."

"'One of' them?" Naruto questioned.

"We're pretty sure there are several," Ino explained. "Sanjuro-san was tailing two of them and they definitely weren't headed toward the base we found."

"Maybe each team of two has its own base?" Naruto posited.

"Maybe," Shikamaru concurred. "It's impossible to say at this point, but that's certainly a possibility."

"Shikamaru," Naruto segued again. "Just so you know, I'm supposed to report to the old hag when I leave here and tell her how soon I think you'll be ready to be debriefed. What do you want me to tell her?"

"You're not supposed to ask me that," Shikamaru said patiently. "It defeats the purpose."

"I know that," the blond replied. "But I want you to get enough rest before people start bugging you. Besides, Ino would be mad at me and she's scary." Shikamaru laughed, and Ino did her best to look indignant but inside she was giggling too.

"I am not!" she huffed. When both boys laughed harder she crossed her arms in protest and turned away from them. Doing that meant she had to let go of Shikamaru's hand though, so she didn't keep it up for long.

"Go ahead and tell her to come by," Shikamaru instructed their friend. "I'm getting plenty of rest, and I'd rather get the whole thing over with sooner than later. Besides, there are some important things she really should know."

"If you say so," Naruto shrugged.

At that moment, Chouji appeared in the doorway. "I'm going to be in so much trouble," he commented to no one in particular. "I just made it to the academy when your clone showed up, Naruto. They're going to dock my pay for this for sure."

"Sorry to be such an inconvenience," Shikamaru jibed.

"I'll live."

"I should go and let you guys talk," Naruto said, heading towards the door. "I'll tell the old lady to come over as soon as she's done doing whatever she's doing."

"I'll come with you," Ino said impulsively as a thought struck her. "These two should get a chance to talk without a woman in the room." She stood up and leaned over to place another kiss, this time on Shikamaru's cheek. "I'll be back." Both Chouji and Naruto looked at her sideways, but said nothing. Naruto waited for her at the door and she fell into step beside him out in the hall.

"What was that about?" he asked. "I don't think they'd mind you being there." Ino inwardly mused that were she walking with Sakura, the kiss would have been the first topic of conversation. Funny how men and women were different that way.

"No, of course they wouldn't," she agreed. "Believe it or not, I actually wanted to talk to you."

"Oh," he said. "Okay. What's on your mind?"

"Actually, it's probably going to be something of a long conversation. You should go see Hokage-sama first."

"It's fine. I can just send a clone," he declared. "You're not supposed to leave here anyway, I thought." He made a clone, and sent it on to the administration building while the real one continued walking with her down the hospital corridor. "So you and Shikamaru, huh?"

"Huh…what?" she sputtered. Caught off guard, she didn't really know how to react to being called out so bluntly.

"I'm happy for you," he said. "Sakura-chan always said she thought you'd be a good couple. I never really thought much about it, but just now I think I saw what she was talking about."

"Thanks…I guess," she managed, still a little flummoxed at the idea of having this conversation in the first place. Not only was it weird, Naruto was one of the last people she'd ever expected to have it with.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked. She saw that they had reached the hospital lounge, where a half dozen people or so were scattered about on various couches and chairs.

"Actually, it's sort of a private conversation," she confessed. "This isn't exactly the place for it."

"Um, okay," he said. She could tell he was confused, and she couldn't really blame him. She wasn't explaining herself very well.

"Can we just go into one of the empty rooms?" she asked. "You have a sealing technique that prevents eavesdropping, right?"

"Just how private is this conversation?" he asked. He looked like he was about ready to bolt, and heaven only knew what he thought she wanted to discuss.

"That's just it; I'm not sure," she admitted. "I have a few ideas, but I don't know if I'm on to something or if I'm just really off-base. If I am right though, it's not the sort of thing a lot of people should be hearing, you know?"

"Okaaay…" he said, still clearly apprehensive. "Well, the room we just went by was empty; let's head in there. I just hope nobody sees us and gets the wrong idea."

Ino couldn't let that one go. She smacked him (lightly) on the back of the head. "Pervert."

A few seconds later, they were enclosed within the empty hospital room and Naruto had placed privacy seals around it. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

"Naruto," she began. Now that she was actually having this conversation, she suddenly felt very nervous. What if she was completely wrong? Would he be furious with her? Or just as bad, what if she was right and got the same reaction? No sense worrying about that now, she told herself. She'd gone too far already. "Why was Akatsuki after Sanjuro-san's brother?"

Whatever he had expected her to ask, it clearly wasn't that. Even though he regained his composure almost immediately, Ino could tell that her question had shaken him deeply. She suddenly felt extremely guilty, but there was no turning back now.

"Why are you asking me that?" he asked.

"Because I know almost nothing at all about Akatsuki except that they exist, and yet from everything I've seen and heard, you know as much as anybody in the village about them. Why is that?"

"It's because Ero-sennin is the one who gathered most of that information, and I'm his pupil," he explained. She didn't buy that for a second. The legendary toad sage was capable of keeping such information from his pupil if necessary (and smart enough to do so). But she let it go for the time being.

"Fair enough," she conceded. "But then back to my original question. Why were they after Kuwabatake-san?"

"You know I couldn't tell you even if I knew," he said.

"Except you do know," she countered. She hadn't meant to use her trump card so early, but he was forcing her hand. "I know you know, because whatever it is, they're after you for the same reason."

Naruto closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "That Cricket Geezer has a big mouth," he finally said.

"He didn't tell me that," Ino was quick to point out. "He just said enough that I guessed, and you just confirmed it for me. And that means they're after the Kazekage too, right?"

"Shikamaru _would_ fall for a smart chick," he remarked dryly. Ino ignored the dig and pressed onward.

"So it is true!" she exclaimed. He neither said nor did anything to confirm or deny it, but his silence was all the confirmation she needed. "But why? What is it about you three that makes you targets?" The only thing she knew they all had in common was a difficult childhood, but she didn't want to bring it up unless absolutely necessary as it was probably a very sensitive subject for him.

"I really shouldn't tell you," he said. "Even some jounin don't know. The younger ones anyway. The older ones were all around when it happened, so of course they know." She didn't know if he was deliberately dropping hints or just becoming careless as a result of being called out like this. Either way, it still wasn't enough for her to put it all together.

"Is it something dangerous?" she asked.

"You could say that," he said with a dark chuckle. "More for me than for you, though."

"What do you mean?" she was growing more and more confused by the second, but she also found herself developing a sense of concern for him as well. She always knew he had it bad as a kid, but she never knew why. As she found herself on the cusp of finding out, she was suddenly a little afraid of what she might learn.

He opened his mouth to say something more, then closed it, and appeared to be struggling with something internally. Finally he said, "What the hell. Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei keep saying I need to be more open about it. You can be a test run." She had no idea what that meant, but she was too close to finding out the truth to risk ruining it by saying anything and derailing him. He seemed to have decided to let her in on whatever it was. "You have to promise me you won't tell anybody about what I'm going to tell you," he said fervently. "Especially Sakura. Do you promise?"

"Yes, I promise." She was so eager to hear it, she didn't even stop to think how difficult keeping that promise might turn out to be.

"All right then," he said. "I'll trust you on that." He took a moment to ready himself which included a deep breath and a visible relaxing of his muscles, and then looked her in the eye and asked, "What do you know about _Jinchuuriki?_"

"'The power of human sacrifice'?" She asked. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," he said. "Well no, not really. But human sacrifice is involved." He scratched his head. "Give me a minute to figure out how to word this," he said. "It was only explained to me a little while ago and it took me a while to figure out what it all meant." She waited patiently – though inside she was practically boiling over with curiosity and anticipation – and then he said, "A person's life is sacrificed in exchange for the power to seal a demon."

"What?" she questioned. It sounded like something out of a comic book. "How?"

"I'm not sure, and honestly I really don't want to know," he said. "Apparently there's more than one way you can do it, but that's not really the point.

"The point isn't about the person who dies, or the act of sealing the demon," he explained. "The point is what the demon is sealed in."

"What do you…no!" As suddenly as a lightning strike, all the pieces came together in Ino's mind. When he had said "demon", he was talking about a very specific kind of demon. She knew her history as well as anyone else who'd been through the academy. The Kyuubi. The death of the fourth. And…a lone orphan boy who had been ostracized and reviled by nearly every adult in the village for his entire childhood for seemingly no reason. For what? Being an unwilling vessel, an unknowing savior of the entire village? She suddenly felt very disgusted with herself for falling in with it all when she was younger even though she didn't know the reason, and with most of her family who had been complicit in the whole affair.

"But you…how could this be a secret? How could anyone not know about this?"

"People know. Everyone who was old enough to remember the Kyuubi's attack knows, even the civilians. Nobody our age does because the third made it a law that no one was ever allowed to talk about it," Naruto said. "I kind of wish he hadn't. I didn't even know myself until we graduated, and for years after that I was terrified that I might lose control of it or something."

"But you don't," she said. "You never have." Then she thought for a moment. "Have you?"

"I've come close. When we went to the wave country I thought Sasuke had been killed. That set me off pretty bad. If I get really angry it gets harder to control, but I'm getting better at it."

"How come you never told anybody about this?" she asked. She remembered he had made her promise not to tell anybody – especially Sakura. "How could you not even tell Sakura?"  
"I've tried," he said. "But even in times when I've wanted to, I'm still not supposed to. The law applies to me, too. I'm breaking it right now talking to you, but Baa-chan probably won't care." He paused to breathe. "As for not telling Sakura, it's because I don't want her to be afraid of me. I can deal with a lot, but not that."

"You know, you really are an idiot," she told him sadly. He was struck dumb her declaration, and she took advantage of that and plowed on. "You have no idea how much she cares about you, do you? You honestly think something like this would affect that?"

"It's easy for you to say that from where you are," he uttered back at her. He was shaking his head as if to say she simply didn't understand. Well, maybe she didn't understand what life was like for him, but she understood enough about Sakura to know that this wouldn't change her feelings toward him at all. She only wished _he_ could see that.

"With the exception of four people," he went on, "everyone who has ever known the truth about me has hated or feared me for it. Mostly both. I have enough people close to me now that it doesn't bother me anymore, but if one of them ended up turning away from me because of this it would really hurt. If Sakura did, I don't know what I would do."

When put like that, his insecurities were much more understandable, and Ino found herself feeling very sad for him indeed.

"Five," she said.

"What?"

"I'm assuming you weren't counting me in those four exceptions. So five people who know about it don't hate you or fear you."

The expression on his face was one that looked altogether foreign on the normally buoyant youth. He had tears forming in his eyes and he looked almost on the verge of a breakdown, though his smile was splitting his face in half.

"You're the coolest person ever," he said in an exceedingly grateful tone.

"Hey, enough of that," she said, waving him off. "I bet if you gave more people a chance, you'd see it wasn't all so bad. I bet everyone we graduated with would say the same thing."

"I don't know…" he wavered. This lack of confidence in him was unnatural and unfitting. She recognized the need to handle it delicately.

"Look, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to," she said. "It's really your secret to tell anyway. But I really think you should at least tell Sakura. What do you think will happen if you don't tell her and she finds out some other way?"

"I know, I know!" he burst out. "Old Man Cricket was telling me the same thing. I always knew she'd find out eventually somehow. I really just want to put it off for as long as possible."

"I think that's really dumb, but it's your decision," she conceded. "I think you're wrong about the adults too. Sure, a lot of people treated you like crap when we were kids, but it's not so bad anymore, is it? I mean, I know my parents always told me not to play with you when we were younger, but in the last few years they've had nothing but good things to say about you. And Asuma-sensei really likes you too. I think a lot of people are starting to realize they were wrong about you. Some of us are just a little slower at figuring that out."

"Thanks," he said. "You're right, I think. Iruka-sensei taught me something like that a long time ago, and I guess I sort of just forgot about it. Nobody has everybody like them, right?"

"Right," Ino smiled. Then she remembered what they were originally talking about. "So all of this means that Akatsuki is looking for people with demons inside of them, right?" she asked. Naruto nodded. "But why?"

"Nobody knows," he answered. "Even Ero-sennin says he has no idea and doesn't trust any of his guesses. We don't know how many _Jinchuuriki _they already have, either."

"How many could there be?" she wondered. "Besides you and Kuwabatake-san and the Kazekage, there can't be many more, right? I mean, I'd never even heard about it before."

"There are nine," Naruto replied. "One for each tailed beast. Well, there could be up to nine. Some of the beasts might be roaming around free without a host. And you never heard of it because it isn't something that's ever really been done in Konoha, but a lot of other places have long-standing traditions with this sort of thing. Gaara's something like the third host of the Shukaku as far as I know."

"So definitely nine," Ino considered. "Even if we assume that some of them don't have hosts, Akatsuki would probably still be going after them, don't you think?"

"Probably," he agreed.

"That limits their targets somewhat. You said they've come after you three times but never after the Kazekage?"

"Right. It's probably because Gaara's a lot harder to get to than I am, being the Kazekage and all. Plus he's stronger than me, so he'd be tougher to capture."

"But you beat him once, didn't you?" Ino questioned. "Sakura told me about it."

"Yeah, I did, but just barely. And that was a long time ago. I don't think I could beat him now. Good thing we're on the same side."

Ino's thoughts were still whirring. "What about the other six? Who are they?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I wouldn't even know where to start looking. Ero-sennin says there's a rumor one or two of them might be up in Lightning Country, but it's still just a rumor."

"Does Shikamaru know about all this?" she asked. "I bet he could help."

"He knows what they're after," Naruto said, "but he doesn't know about…me. I don't think so, anyway. No offense, but I'm surprised you figured it out before he did."

"If he'd been awake to hear Sanjuro-san's story, he would have put it together right there," she told him. "He did have a lot more information to go on, after all."

"You think I should tell him, don't you?"

"Of course I do. You know you can trust him. Besides, it's possible he already figured it out and just didn't say anything so he wouldn't hurt your feelings."

"That does sound like him," Naruto reflected. He let out a long breath and appeared to be mulling it over. "All right, I'll talk to Shikamaru," he finally said. "I don't know if anyone can think of a way to counter Akatsuki that both Ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei overlooked, but if anyone could it would be him." Suddenly Naruto's eyes twitched as if he were hearing something she could not.

"Baa-chan's coming to debrief Shikamaru," he informed her. "She wants you there too. You'd better go."

"How did you do that?" Ino asked. She was sure he didn't know any of her clan's telepathic techniques, and they were too far from the Hokage for them to have worked anyway.

"_Kage bunshin,_" he answered. "When one of my clones disperses, everything it experienced goes right into my memory." He tapped his forehead with his finger.

"Wow. I bet that's great for learning new techniques," she marveled. His eyes bugged with the unmistakable look of sudden realization.

"I never even thought of that!" he exclaimed. Ino deadpanned.

"Are you serious?"

"Wow, I can't wait to try that out!" he was rambling to himself. "Thanks, Ino!" He paused for a second and then he seemed to think of something else exciting. "Hey, if you want to learn the technique too I could teach it to you."

"What? _Kage bunshin_?" she asked, surprised.

"It's supposed to be a secret hidden technique, but call it payback for today."

"I didn't even do anything," she protested.

"Yeah you did," he assured her. "It's no big deal if you don't want to learn it. I offered to teach it to Sakura-chan once and she wanted to wait until she had enough stamina to be able to use it properly."

"Sakura didn't want to learn it?" Ino repeated.

"Yeah, she said it would take too much out of her right now, and she doesn't really need it for the way she fights. Anyway, you could probably learn it from Shikamaru if you really wanted, but I just thought – "

"I'll do it," she cut him off.

"Eh?"

"I'd love to learn it," she told him eagerly. "Shikamaru probably would teach me if I asked, but he'd get in trouble with his family for doing it. Besides, I think at this point you're better at it than any Nara. You're the perfect person to learn it from." He swelled with pride.

"All right then," he said. "Let me know when you want to do it. I can probably teach you how to perform it in a day, and then it's just practice from there."

"I will, thanks," she said. She looked forward to lording this one over Sakura. "I should go so I'm not late." She said goodbye as he took down the privacy seals around the room. It was only after she left that she realized she'd completely forgotten to ask why the Hokage had been angry with him, but she didn't really care at that moment. The conversation hadn't gone at all the way she'd thought it would when she started, but she came out of it feeling pretty good.

-

"That was the last team," Tsunade said as the envoys to the Hidden Cliff Village left her office. Three days after finding out about the Rain's treachery and she finally knew all the cards she had to play. "What's the final count, Shizune?"

Her assistant read from the list in front of her. "The Grass and the Tree have agreed to enter the conflict on our side," she announced. "The Steam have entered as well at the behest of their allies in the Sand."

"That's less than I would have liked, but more than I dared to hope for," Tsunade said. "Continue."

"The Waterfall does not wish to pit itself against any of the major countries if it can avoid it, but they have accepted contracts on Rain and Sound ninja for the time being. Likewise, the Rainbow and the Ivy feel they would be overmatched in the war, but they have accepted contracts on the Smoke ninja who have been bounty hunting within Fire Country. That should help to alleviate at least a bit of the strain from our ANBU and border guards for the time being."

"We'll take whatever we can get," Tsunade said. "The Ivy are also on notoriously bad terms with the Ash, so a little prodding there might garner us a little more help." She turned to her old teammate. "Jiraiya, what's the latest intelligence report on what we're facing?"

"The latest reports indicate that in addition to the Rain, the Reed have decided to answer the Mist's call. Also, the Thorn are allied to both the Mist and the Cloud, and while they don't appear to have made a decision as yet, they can't be happy about what happened in the Grass two weeks ago."

"And we have the Smoke, the Ash and the Mud all out headhunting for us," Tsunade added.

"At least the Cliff is staying out of it," Shizune offered. "They have a long history with the Rock, so that was fortunate for us."

"It was, but we're going to need more than that. We can't afford to send any more envoys right now, but I want to continue soliciting help from every hidden village that hasn't picked a side yet," she declared. "And see if we can't convince the Waterfall and the others to accept a few more contracts while we're at it. Focus especially on the Ivy. Getting them to take some contracts on bounty-hunting Ash ninja shouldn't be too hard."

"Can we afford all that?" Shizune asked.

"We're going to have to."

A tall young woman with a long ponytail poked her head into the room. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, your afternoon appointment is here."

"Thank you, Sakaki," Tsunade said. "Please send her in." She took a moment after the girl left to rub her temples. So much was happening at once it was nearly impossible to keep up with it all.

"You're overworking yourself, Tsunade," Jiraiya stated.

"There's nothing I can do about that," she snapped, though she didn't mean to. "I'm the Hokage; that means I have to deal with all of this whether I like it or not."

"It might be time to pass the job along," her old teammate suggested.

"No," said Tsunade firmly. "Not just yet." The would-be argument was cut short as her appointment chose that moment to walk in. "Ino, good to see you."

"You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?" the girl asked.

"I did. Please sit." She indicated the chair opposite her desk and Ino dutifully obeyed. "I understand that captain of yours is up and about." She was quite fond of Shikamaru, and was anxious to see what he could accomplish for the village. She had similar feelings for the girl in front of her.

"Yes ma'am, he left the hospital this morning," Ino confirmed.

"I'm glad," the Hokage stated. "But as you've probably guessed, that's not why you're here." Ino didn't say anything. She was waiting to hear the rest. Smart girl. "As you may or may not know, jounin are selected via an examination process that usually involves a real A-rank mission chosen specifically for that purpose. It is meant to test in much the same way as an exam all the attributes we look for in an elite shinobi." Ino nodded. "This being the case, such a mission must be ratified by not only me, but by a majority of the village council. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't spare you for such a mission at this time."

Ino's eyes went wide with surprise. She opened her mouth, but the Hokage held up a hand to forestall her. "However, the appointment of _tokubetsu jounin_ is left to the discretion of the Hokage alone. I am therefore promoting you to that rank on the basis of your infiltration and information gathering abilities. Effective immediately."

"Hokage-sama…!" Ino gasped. Tsunade was pleased to see her so excited, but it would have to wait.

"You won't have time to celebrate right away, I'm afraid," she said. "I'll be sending you on a mission tomorrow, and it's going to be a long one. I hate to do this to you so soon after your last mission, but we're becoming critically understaffed and we need to get you younger shinobi as much hard field experience as possible very quickly. Use tonight to say your goodbyes to whoever necessary, and be back in my office by dawn tomorrow to meet your team and receive your orders. Understand?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Ino said.

"Good. You're dismissed. And it may not mean much coming from me now, but congratulations on your promotion. You've really earned it." Ino bowed and left.

"You think she can handle it, eh?" Jiraiya asked after the door shut.

"She's the best one for the job, and she has a good rapport with the rest of the team. Also, she's apparently in on the big secret, so that's one less thing to worry about."

"Are you certain she's the best choice, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

"I am," the Hokage nodded. "Nara Shikamaru is one of the best strategists I've seen in decades, and as much as I hate to admit it, Naruto is probably one of our best young tacticians. But no one in their generation blends both abilities together anywhere near as well as that girl does. Especially considering I can't afford to send Shikamaru, she's exactly what the team is going to need, and I'd like to see how she works with the rest of them. She can learn a lot from Kakashi."

-

Konan silently entered the underground chamber. Zetsu had just arrived to inform her that Itachi and Kisame had arrived in the River cave with their quarry. It was time to begin the extraction ritual.

"Is it time, Konan?" Pein's voice rang out in the darkness.

"Yes."

"Then let us begin."

"Is it safe?" she asked. "It will take much longer without Orochimaru, and this location has been compromised, after all." She still couldn't believe how unconcerned he'd been about the two Leaf ninja's escape.

"We will be safe. Even if an intruder approaches, which I doubt, I will still know. In the absolute worst case scenario, we can halt the ritual and begin again another time."

"It would not damage the _bijuu_?"

"No."

Konan began to mold chakra for the astral projection jutsu that would transport her to the cave in River Country where they would extract the 4-tailed beast from its host.

"You weren't here this morning, Konan, or you would know," Pein said. "This may be the last time we have to worry about being short one member." With that cryptic remark the jutsu was activated, and both of them were transported spiritually to the cave to begin what would now be a three-day extraction ritual.

* * *

I thank you all for being so patient and I'm truly sorry about the delay. I got stuck with the whole Konan thing and ended up redoing it four or five times. To those of you who will leave a review of this chapter, thank you in advance. I love hearing from you. Also, it keeps me fired up in writing the next chapter (which I've already begun, thank you very much!).

Also, it would seem I jumped the gun a little with my 100,000 word claim last time. I expected to hit it, but I fell a few thousand short. This one'll do it, though.

For those of you wondering: Yes, Jin'e's sword was a claymore. Or based on one anyway. He wouldn't call it that, of course.

Some notes on Shikamaru's exhaustion: it wasn't so much the jutsu that he performed, but the fact that he did them all at once that overtaxed him. Shikamaru's weakness has always been his relatively low stamina, so I don't think this one was too far-fetched. Besides, benching 90 pounds is relatively easy for someone in good shape. Several reps of 90 pounds would also be well within that person's ability. But try lifting 90 pounds four times in less than a second. Alternatively, try lifting 360 pounds with the same ease as 90. Either way, you'll hurt yourself.

As usual, many thanks go to my prereader HitokiriOTD, who (among other things) confirmed my suspicions that I had royally farked Naruto's and Ino's characters in the kyuubi reveal scene. I hope what I ended up with works better. I like it more, anyway.

Lastly, shortest opening comments ever. Woo!

Translations:

_Kage kakushi – _"Shadow concealment". Shikamaru used this on Naruto way back in chapter six of Koorikage. Remember?

_Sumimasen deshita – _"I'm sorry/please excuse me" (semi-formal, past tense). I put this in there because that's all I could hear her saying and couldn't imagine it in English at all. If that bugs you, sumanakatta.

_Sensei – _Sakura refers to Deguchi as "sensei" in the sense of him being a doctor, not her instructor


	10. Episode IX: Leavetakings

Wow, that last chapter was a doozy, but it was a long time in coming. It was about time for a chapter that focused more on characters and plot development than action and whatnot. Also, I've been wanting to do another Naruto and Ino scene for a while, and that last one worked out pretty well, I think. I always knew I wanted her to discover Naruto's secret before Sakura, and Sanjuro was just the spark plug I needed to make that happen. I hope you enjoyed it.

Moving on, this chapter will mark the beginning of something of a new story arc within the overall tale, and I've been hammering out the details for it in my mind for quite some time. We'll see how it goes.

SHINOBI WARS: Episode IX – Leavetakings

Naruto stopped by the hospital in the evening. Whenever Sakura wasn't on a mission or training under Tsunade, she was working there as a trainee medical nin. He knew this was about the time she usually got off, and he really wanted to catch her tonight.

He took a seat in the front waiting area and after a few minutes someone else he knew well came out from the back.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata greeted happily. "Are you here to see Sakura-san?" Hinata was working as a trainee as well, and her team had arrived back in Konoha a few days before he and Sakura. However, this was only the second time he'd seen her since the great battle against the daimyo's army.

"Yeah, I am. How are you, Hinata?" She seemed much more cheerful these days than she used to be, and he was glad to see it.

"I am well, thank you," she answered, only blushing the tiniest bit. "Sakura-san is just finishing up, so I am sure she will be along at any moment."

"Great, thanks," he said. "How's your medical training going?"

"Oh, it is going wonderfully!" Hinata exclaimed. "Shizune-sensei is an excellent teacher, and my _byakugan _is extremely useful in diagnosis and treatment."

"I bet it is," he said. He'd never even thought of that, but it made perfect sense. He wondered why more Hyuuga didn't go into the medical field; they would be naturals at it. "Say, Hinata," he said, changing the subject, "I'm going to be gone for a while. Do you think you could do me a favor?"

"Of course!" she agreed immediately. Naruto smiled.

"Keep an eye on Konohamaru for me," he said. "He's been really working toward getting a C-rank mission, and he probably will soon. I remember what my first one was like and, well, I just want to make sure he's ready for whatever happens. I know your sister is on his team, so I figured you'd be the best person to ask since you're going to be watching her anyway."

"Of course I will, Naruto-kun," she said. "It is very kind of you to worry about him so much."

"Hehe," Naruto laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know about that, but I do feel a little bit responsible for him sometimes."

"He is lucky to have people like you to look after him," she said.

"And so's your sister," he answered back. "I knew I could count on you, Hinata. Thanks." He smiled again and she blushed, and they said their farewells as he sat down once again to wait for Sakura. If the conversation with her went half as smoothly as the one with Hinata, he'd consider himself a very lucky man.

He didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later Sakura came strolling into the waiting area from the same direction Hinata had. She looked tired.

"Sakura-chan!" he called, waving. When she saw him she perked up a little and smiled as she made her way over to him.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," she said fondly. "I've been going all day. Training with Tsunade-shishou until lunch and then the rest of the day here. Medical ninjutsu is exhausting."

"Have you eaten yet?" Naruto asked. Sakura made a face.

"If you can call it that," she grumbled. "The staff lounge here isn't exactly known for its fine cuisine."

"Well dinner's out, then," Naruto mused. "How about some dango?"

"What's got into you?" Sakura raised her eyebrow, but judging by her amused grin she was probably just teasing him.

"What? Can't a guy take his teammate out to eat without being interrogated?" Naruto joked, feeling incredibly guilty for hiding his intentions. She'd find out soon enough, he reasoned.

"My apologies," she said, playing at acting contrite. "Lead on, then." They left the hospital and began walking through the twilit streets of Konoha. The chill common of a late-October evening was making itself known, and Naruto noticed Sakura shivering and rubbing her arms.

"It's cold," she stated. "I guess I didn't notice working inside all afternoon."

"It really only cooled down about an hour or so ago," he said, slipping an arm around her shoulders to keep her warm. She gratefully leaned into him.

"No fair," she complained. "How come you're not cold?"

He laughed. "I'm wearing long sleeves, Sakura-chan," he said, making fun of her bare arms. "Plus, I haven't been burning up my chakra all day so I have plenty left to keep me warm."

"Sure sure, dismiss my suffering with your stupid logic," she joked. She then seemed to realize she had accused him of all people of being logical and burst into a fit of laughter.

"Here," he said, removing his jacket and placing it around her. "No more suffering. Let me be cold even though I planned ahead."

"Aw, I liked your other way better," she pouted. Naruto nearly tripped. She had never flirted with him so openly before, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to it. His conversation with Ino and her advice from the other day weighed on his conscience, as did what he was preparing to tell Sakura this evening. Now was not the time.

Fortunately, deliverance came in the form of their destination. Naruto held back the hangings for her and then followed her in. Just as well. Even if he had wanted to try flirting back, he probably would have just made an ass of himself.

They sat for a while enjoying their food and some idle conversation, but by his fifth dango Naruto knew it was time to stop dawdling and get down to the hard part. They each took one for the road and casually strolled through the streets eating them, observing the village wind down from a busy day. It was mostly dark now, and lanterns lit their way as shops and stalls were closing up and parents hollered for their children to come indoors. Naruto could see his breath misting as he exhaled and was starting to miss his jacket, but he never entertained a thought of asking for it back.

"Now you look cold," Sakura said, wrapping herself around his left arm and leaning into him. "Sorry. I really should get a jacket."

"Don't worry about it," he said as casually as he could manage – which wasn't much. He was afraid to move his arm at all in case it made her let go. He led her to a bench along one of the village's canals where they sat in silence for a time watching the stars come out.

"I think this is one of the nicest dates you've ever taken me on," she mused sleepily from where her head was rested on his shoulder.

"I think this is one of the only dates I've ever taken you on," he replied cheekily. He didn't recall referring to the evening as a date, but if that's what she wanted to call it he was more than happy to let her. He was torn between elation at how things were going and anxiety over how it was all about to end.

"True enough," she breathed, taking a moment to snuggle into his shoulder a little more. "We'll have to do something about that."

If he hadn't already finished his dango he would have choked. If he understood her even the tiniest bit, she was telling him she wanted him to ask her out more often. Any other time he would be dancing in the streets and shouting off rooftops. As it was, he was loathe to end this perfect moment. At the same time he knew if he didn't say something soon he could potentially ruin everything.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," he began. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Hmm?" she murmured, barely even awake.

'_She really did have a long day,'_ he thought. Out loud he said, "Tomorrow morning I'm leaving on a long-term mission and I don't know when I'm coming back." He probably could have been a little less abrupt about it, but he had a feeling if he didn't come right out and say it he'd never manage to spit it out at all.

"What?" she asked, jerking her head from its perch.

"Tsunade-baba told me this afternoon," he said. "I don't even know where I'm going or who I'm going with." That was only partially true, but he couldn't tell her the rest of what he did know, anyway.

"I see," Sakura said flatly. "Why are you telling me? Isn't it supposed to be a secret?"

"Well, the fact that I'm leaving doesn't have to be or she would've told me not to say anything," he said. "But I'm just telling you because I'm probably going to be gone for a long time and I guess I just wanted to say goodbye."

She smiled warmly and leaned into him again, this time not just embracing his arm but his whole frame. Any chill Naruto may have felt in the brisk autumn air instantly vanished as a hyper-sensitive tingling overtook him from head to toe. Whereas before he didn't want to move his arm in case she let go, now he was too petrified to move at all. All things considered, this conversation was going much better than he had feared.

"That was sweet of you," she said. "I don't know where you're going or what you'll face there, but I know you'll come home safe and successful. You always do."

"I thought you'd be upset," he confessed. "You said I always do stupid things and you're scared something bad will happen."

She chuckled into his chest. "I did say that, didn't I?" A few moments passed before she continued. "Well, maybe that's true and maybe I will worry a little; I can't really help it. But you promised me you'd try to get better about that and I have faith in you, Naruto. If you say you'll succeed and come home safe, then I'll believe you."

"I will," he vowed, finally mustering the nerve to move and placing his hand on the back of her head. Her hair was soft and smooth, and he desperately wanted to run his fingers through it but refrained, not wishing to push his luck.

"And when you do, I'll be ready to fight along side you wherever you go," she said.

"You already are," he said, wanting to reassure her.

"No I'm not, Naruto," she denied. "We both know that. You're a jounin and I haven't even been a chuunin for a year. But I'll be ready by the time I see you again. I promise."

He didn't say anything, not knowing what to say. He merely placed his other hand on top of the arm that was encircling him and they sat there alone for quite some time in silence. Eventually he realized she had fallen asleep and very carefully he repositioned himself to pick her up, and taking great care not to wake her he lifted her from the bench and carried her home.

Her parents gave him a very suspicious glare when he arrived at their door with her in his arms wearing his jacket, but they didn't anything as they took her from him and whisked her off to bed. He didn't ask for his jacket back.

That night would later find Uzumaki Naruto whimsically bounding from rooftop to rooftop en route to his ramshackle apartment feeling more content than he ever had in his life. The only thing disrupting his feeling of ultimate satisfaction was the niggling guilt in the back of his mind that he had not followed Ino and Sanjuro's advice. He only hoped his luck would hold and she didn't find out until he got back from wherever it was he was going.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Kankurou was uneasy even as he set about packing his various puppet scrolls. No matter how many times his brother explained the logic of the plan, he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong.

"Gaara, are you sure about this?" he asked for what had to be the dozenth time. "I mean, giving Temari a genin team was one thing, but if you send me away who's going to be watching your back?"

"I am the Kazekage," the younger man said simply. "It is my duty to protect the shinobi of the Sand, not the other way around."

"I know that, but it still doesn't feel right," Kankurou persisted.

"That may be, but with things as they are, we have no choice. New genin must be trained, and Temari is one of the only jounin available to do so at the moment. And The Hidden Steam Village has agreed to assist us in the war, despite their small size and power. We need someone there with them to coordinate their involvement and as my brother you are the perfect choice. You have a high position diplomatically which implies respect, and you are a skilled jounin which says we are taking their assistance seriously."

"I know all that, but I wish you hadn't sent Baki off to the front as well."

"I need a field commander. Baki is the best choice."

"But you're left completely open now!"

"I am hardly the only shinobi left in this village, or even in this building," Gaara explained patiently. "Your concern is appreciated, but I will be fine."

Kankurou really wanted to believe that, but there was still that nagging doubt. In the end, he decided he would have to trust his brother's judgment. There wasn't much else he could do.

"All right," he conceded. "I'll stop arguing."

"Thank you," Gaara said. "You should get going; I have another meeting." And with that, the Kazekage turned and left him alone.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Gaara entered his office where one of his chuunin assistants, Yuuka, was waiting. "You wanted to see me, Kazekage-sama?" she asked brightly. She was one of his greatest admirers, which meant among other things that he could trust her to work hard because she wanted to impress him.

"Yes," he said simply. "I need you to send a message to the Hokage."

"What should it say, Kazekage-sama?" she asked.

"The trap has been set."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ino slowly wormed her way into consciousness. Her initial reluctance to leave her dreams was wiped away when she remembered reality was just as sweet. Sweeter even, on account of actually being real.

Shikamaru was still asleep, but that was fine for the moment. It gave her the chance to revel in this new experience. The feel of her flesh against his as she lay partially atop him was titillating, and the smell of their combined essence was intoxicating. As a kunoichi, she had been prepared for and educated on all the hard facts of sexual intercourse – and had even prepared her body so that her first time would not be painful, just in case – but no one could have ever prepared her for the euphoric ecstasy that was making love.

She hadn't planned for it to happen when she went to Shikamaru's home to say goodbye the night before. She had saved him for last among everyone because she knew it would take the longest and that the two of them had the most to say.

His parents being away might have had something to do with it – his father on a mission and his mother staying with an ailing relative. Certainly it would be more awkward if they were here now. But that wasn't what caused it. One minute they were talking, saying things she never thought either of them would say, the next minute she was kissing him, and before she knew it they had found their way to his bed. There was no hesitation for either of them – merely a little awkwardness that was quickly overcome – and on three distinct occasions that night they had demonstrated quite definitively just how much they were going to miss each other.

'_It's probably a new relationship thing,'_ the rational part of her mind reasoned even as she traced light kisses along his jaw line. It didn't matter that he wasn't awake to feel them. '_I bet a lot of couples go through a phase when they first get together where they can't keep their hands off each other._'

"I hope this is your way of waking me up," Shikamaru murmured, startling her enough to pause in kissing him.

"Sorry, I was going to let you sleep," she whispered.

"Don't worry about it," he said, turning his head to look at her face. "This is better than sleep." Fire ran through her and she smiled and kissed him fully this time. Despite just waking up, he responded with surprising fervor.

"I wish we had more time," she breathed when they separated. Reluctantly she set to stamping out that fire. It was becoming more and more difficult each and every time.

"You and me both," he replied. "But we knew what we were getting into, and you know as well as I do that if you don't leave now there'll be problems."

"I know," she sighed. "I just wish I knew where I was going, or for how long. Or even who with."

"Hmm," Shikamaru mused, giving her a knowing smile. "It's always that way, isn't it? I'll tell you something: one of the first things you learn on becoming a jounin is that even when they do tell you that stuff, it doesn't really help."

"You're just saying that," she whined as she slid out of bed and began to get dressed.

"I'm not," he insisted. "In fact, I was happier not knowing. If they tell you in advance it usually means you're the one who has to tell everybody else. I could do without that part."

"Complain, complain," she teased while she buttoned up her top. She wondered if she'd have time to change before leaving. "You can grumble all you want but there isn't anyone I'd rather have leading my team." She pulled back her hair to tie it and noticed him starting to come back with something, so she cut him off. "And _not_ just because I'm in love with you, you idiot. You're an amazing leader, Shikamaru. Everyone says so."

That apparently put him in his place, because he said nothing and just stared blankly at her. Satisfied that she'd won the discussion, she set about slipping on her sandals. When she was done, Shikamaru still hadn't moved. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You all right?"

"What did you just say?" he asked somewhat hesitantly.

"I asked if you were all right," she said, checking the time on his bed-stand clock. She had a few minutes. "You're just sitting there gaping, but I've already got my clothes on."

"No, before that," he said, shaking his head.

"What? I said you were an amazing leader and it's true. You are."

"No, no, before _that_," he demanded, shaking his head more vigorously now and waving his hand impatiently.

"Huh? I said – oh." Ino's eyes went wide and she stopped speaking upon realizing what he was talking about. She had just said it without thinking. But now that it was out there, what would he do?

"That's what I thought," he said softly, almost to himself.

While he digested the news, she herself was trying to figure out if this was even a big deal. The gossip-loving girly side of her insisted it was, but the more mature part of her – the part she'd been more and more satisfied with lately – was telling her that it shouldn't be. After all, it was fairly obvious how she felt about him; why should verbalizing it make any difference? It shouldn't, right? She told herself it wasn't a big deal at all, but her heart was racing too fast for her to believe it. Calling upon her training, she forced herself to calm down. This was Shikamaru, after all. She was freaking out over nothing.

She looked at him again; he still hadn't moved. She smiled as her affection for him won out over her anxiety.

"Did I break you?" she joked. He shook himself out of his thoughts.

"No, just caught me off-guard is all," he said. "I'd never really thought about what it would be like to hear someone say that. It was…I don't really know how to describe it."

"Was I not being obvious enough?" she teased, leaning down and kissing him to drive the point home. This wasn't so hard.

"Hardly the point," he deadpanned. "It's just now I feel like I should say something."

"Don't you dare," she scolded. "If you said it now just because I did it would destroy the whole meaning. People don't tell you they love you because they want to hear it back; they do it because they want you to know that they love you."

"I know that," he answered, rather annoyed. "That's why I think I should."

"What?" she asked. "I'm not following you."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm saying I should say it because I'm in love with you, not because I feel obligated."

He was right; hearing it said really was an experience unlike any other.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Neji arrived ten minutes early to the Hokage's office, but was surprised to find he was not the first to arrive. Or even the second. Naruto and – of all people, Hatake Kakashi – were already there. Naruto was speaking to the Hokage in his usual boisterous way.

"How did you do it?" he was asking. "Kakashi-sensei's never on time for anything. Ever!"

"Easy," the Fifth replied, smirking. "I told him the meeting time was three hours ago."

"That was a dirty trick," grumbled the copy ninja. Naruto laughed uproariously.

"I can't believe I never thought of that before!" the blond exclaimed in delight. Kakashi continued muttering under his breath, and the Hokage's eyes shifted to Neji.

"Ah, Neji, you're here. Good," she said. Waving him over, she gestured for the three of them to sit in the chairs lined up in front of her desk. There was a fourth chair, and Shizune was already sitting at her own desk in the corner, which meant they were expecting one more person. Neji sat, and Naruto sat next to him flashing a thumbs-up. He rolled his eyes but smiled in spite of himself. He enjoyed working with Naruto, different as the two of them were.

"I'm glad you're here early," Tsunade addressed him as the other two looked on. "The last member of your team already knows what I'm going to tell you, so this will save us some time."

"She does?" Kakashi spoke up, sounding slightly nonplussed. "Since when?"

"A few days ago," Tsunade answered. She smirked again. "I'm amazed you didn't know."

"So am I," Kakashi admitted. "How did she find out?"

"Naruto told her." At this, the copy ninja's surprise went from slight to unmistakable. His eyebrow looked in danger of getting lost in his hair.

"Well, she sorta half guessed," Naruto put in sheepishly. "She had a lot of it figured out, and I thought it was probably better to tell her the whole thing rather than have her guess and get the wrong idea." He scratched the back of his head like he always did when nervous about something, and Neji didn't need the _byakugan_ to know he wasn't telling the whole truth. The Hokage let it slide though, so he didn't say anything.

"Well regardless, it's over and done with, and it's just as well she knows now anyway," Tsunade said. Neji couldn't help but wonder who they were talking about. The only thing he could be sure of was that it _wasn't_ Haruno Sakura. This was obviously some sort of secret related to Naruto, and given what he knew about the relationships between the members of Team 7, Kakashi very likely wouldn't have been this shocked had Naruto told _her_…whatever it was they were talking about.

The older man gave Naruto one more questioning look and was met with a shrug that said, "I'll explain later."

"Moving on," the Hokage said. "Neji, would you please make sure there is no one outside who could overhear what we're saying?"

Taken aback but not showing it, Neji activated his _byakugan_. "Nobody is anywhere near this office at the moment," he reported.

"Good. Next, I need you to be aware that what I am about to tell you is top secret, and you will not speak about it to anyone not in this room unless that person has been cleared to you by one of us. Do you understand?"

Used to such things after more than half a decade as a shinobi, Neji merely nodded.

"You know the story of the nine-tailed fox?" Tsunade asked without further preamble. Of course he did. He said so and she went on. "You know from the academy that the Forth Hokage defeated the Kyuubi and died in the process, and that is all. This is because the full account of those events has been kept secret by decree of the Third. It is illegal to speak of, but I tell you now because you need to know for this mission."

Neji found it interesting that Naruto already knew whatever this secret was, and was apparently given top-level clearance on it, but he deduced the reason for that would soon become clear, so he didn't concern himself with it for the moment.

"When the fourth defeated the demon," the Hokage went on, "he did so by sealing it away. Inside a living being." That was unexpected. The earlier conversation replayed in his mind and he glanced at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. Was she saying what he thought she was?

"Inside me," Naruto said, confirming it. So many things clicked into place in Neji's brain. Naruto's unfathomable chakra reserves. The way he always managed to recover from whatever injuries he'd sustained seemingly overnight. And their fight in the chuunin exam all those years ago, when he'd closed Naruto's _tenketsu_. He never had been able to puzzle out how the other boy had managed to overcome that, but it all made sense now.

"I should have guessed," Neji said, closing his eyes and allowing himself a small chuckle. "All the signs were there."

"Only if you knew to look for them," Kakashi interjected. "People tend to accept the simplest and most plausible explanation for things. You could hardly have been expected to take anything you observed and draw the conclusion that Naruto must have a demon sealed inside him."

"I suppose hindsight is always clearer," Neji admitted. He of all people knew that.

"So why did he need to know, anyway?" Naruto asked the Hokage. The relief in his voice that Neji wasn't bothered by this information was quite clear.

"Because it has to do with your mission," Tsunade replied, "which I'll tell you about as soon as the last member of your team shows up." She looked up at the clock on the wall opposite her desk and frowned. "She's late."

-o-o-o-o-o-

'_I am so dead,'_ Ino thought as she raced through the village as fast as she could. Still, if she could do the last several minutes over again, she wouldn't change a thing. Her only regret was that it had to be right before she left the village for an indeterminate length of time that they'd decided to confess their feelings to each other. On the bright side, the inevitable reunion when she came home was going to be spectacular.

Despite the anxiety she felt at being late for a meeting with the Hokage, she couldn't keep the smile off her face. Oh, how she wanted to talk to Sakura before she left. She needed another girl to share this with.

Finally arriving at the admin tower, she shot up the stairs before anyone could ask why she was there. Obviously she was expected or someone would have tried to stop her. That did not bode well. She could only hope she wasn't _too_ late. After all, she'd only stayed a few extra minutes. Shikamaru had even dressed himself to remove – _lessen_ – the temptation. She slowed down once she reached the hallway where Tsunade's office was located. Whatever trouble she was about to be in, it had been totally worth it.

"Hurry up and come in!" the Hokage's voice shouted from behind the closed door down the hall. Ino jumped in surprise and scurried the rest of the way down the hall and opened the door. Tsunade was sitting behind her desk with a scowl on her face that made Ino gulp. Shizune was sitting at her own desk pointedly ignoring the proceedings, and sitting in chairs with their backs to the door were Naruto, Neji and Kakashi, who all turned to face her as she entered.

"I saw you coming," Neji remarked casually, and she noticed the bulging veins around his eyes. Great.

"Now that you've finally decided to join us," the Hokage snapped, "we can get this briefing started. Come and sit."

"I'm so sorry I'm late, Hokage-sama," Ino bowed before taking her seat. "There were…unique circumstances. It won't happen again." She tried to hide her blush, but she wasn't sure how successful she was.

"It had better not," Tsunade said sternly. The woman was almost never stern. "Don't make me regret promoting you, Ino." Shame surged through her and she knew she was blushing this time. She still didn't regret anything, though. And she knew she was telling the truth about it not happening again. That sort of thing was most definitely a one-time special case, and Ino certainly had enough self-control not to lose her head every time Shikamaru said something sweet to her. She wasn't twelve.

"Moving on, then." Tsunade had apparently decided to forgive her this once, which was an immense relief. She had been ready to accept any punishment, but that didn't mean she wanted one. "I understand you're aware of Naruto's…situation."

That was a surprise. Unless…no! Ino's pulse quickened as she hastened to explain as quickly as possible.

"Hokage-sama, it wasn't Naruto's fault! I kind of cornered him and –"

"This isn't a disciplinary meeting," Tsunade said calmly, holding up a hand to halt Ino's panicked explanation. "Neither you nor Naruto is in any trouble. Technically, he shouldn't have told you, but I don't have an interest in upholding that law anymore. It's his business to tell whomever he wants and no one else's. Besides, it's good that you know, because it will play an important part in the mission I'm about to assign you."

Ino let out a relieved breath, and Naruto flashed her a grateful smile for trying to come to his defense. She managed a weak one back. She didn't know how many more ups and downs she could take this morning.

"Kakashi, why don't you take over, since you'll be leading this mission," Tsunade offered.

"All right," the masked man agreed. Clearing his throat, he stood and walked to the nearest wall, pulling down a map. It was of the territories between Konohagakure and Iwagakure, including most of Grass Country, a large part of Waterfall Country and a small bit of Forest Country. Several points were marked in all three, along with a few in Fire Country and many more in Earth Country.

"This area here is going to be one of the most important in the whole war, strategically speaking," Kakashi explained. "Three of our allies currently act as a buffer between us and the Rock, who have the greatest numbers of any of our enemies. They are also the closest to us geographically, since while Kumogakure is a comparable distance, the mountains in Lightning country make it a harder trip.

"Each of these marks represents a town or village of possible strategic importance. The ones in Fire Country we believe already contain reconnaissance agents from the Rock and likely also from the Sound. Possibly a few in our allied nations as well. Our mission will be to move from one village to the next along this path." He paused, drawing a line beginning from Konoha that connected the dots all the way to just outside Iwagakure itself. All told, there were more than thirty points on that line. "In each village, we will ascertain the level of enemy presence, if any, and eliminate it. Further, we will establish safe houses in each location to be taken over by other Konoha shinobi or by allied shinobi after we leave. Villages along the route already containing safe houses have obviously not been marked on the map." That would explain a few of the gaps Ino had been wondering about.

"The last town on the route before Iwagakure is called Kuritsuchi. The safe house here will be the first of many that will ideally become a staging ground for the attack on Iwagakure." At this, Ino was shocked. Not in any of the previous three Shinobi Wars had Konoha ninja ever actually struck at an enemy village itself. Most of the fighting was usually done in proxy territory.

"With all due respect, Kakashi-san," Neji spoke up, "is one team going to be enough for this?"

"Sharp as always, Neji-kun," Kakashi grinned. Or at least she thought he did. It was so hard to tell with that mask. "This mission needs to be done, but the reason we're the ones doing it is our _actual _mission, and it's the reason you and Ino had to be briefed on the situation with the Kyuubi." He looked to Naruto, who stood to address them now. It was so weird to see him taking a position of authority and responsibility, but if he wanted to be Hokage she figured it was something he'd have to start doing eventually.

"There's an organization out there called Akatsuki," Naruto said. "They're made up of S-class criminals and they're hunting down people with tailed beasts sealed inside them. People like me." Ino knew this already of course, but she still experienced a strong wave of sympathy toward Naruto. On top of everything else the guy had to deal with!

"They abducted the host of the Yonbi during the battle at Kusagakure, and we received word just yesterday from the Waterfall that a young kunoichi named Fu, who hosted the Seven-tails, was abducted by a pair of unidentified shinobi. It's too much to be a coincidence."

"Obviously the brass in Takigakure was unnerved by it enough to tell us," Kakashi said. "Up until then we didn't even know they _had_ one of the tailed beasts."

"They've come after me before," Naruto continued, "back when I was still a genin. Luckily I wasn't here at the time, and then when they tried again Ero-sennin was with me. We don't know why they were lying low for the last couple of years, but they're starting up again for some reason and we're pretty sure they're going to try for me again."

"We're leading them on a hunt," Neji declared, apparently having deduced where this was all going. Ino thought about it for a second; it made some sense.

"Exactly," Tsunade confirmed. "We can't afford to have them come to Konoha, so we'll lead them where we want them. If they do appear, your orders are to observe and track them, and if you deem it safe to engage you must fight to kill; don't bother trying to capture them, it will only make things more difficult for you. While it's true that gaining some intelligence on Akatsuki would be useful, we can't afford to make that a priority at the moment, and any blow we can strike against the organization is useful."

"That's not to say we _shouldn't_ bring one of them in if the opportunity presents itself," Kakashi clarified.

"Of course," the Hokage acknowledged.

"They travel in teams of two, so we'll have them outnumbered," Naruto said.

"The three of you were chosen for this mission for very special reasons," Tsunade said. "Kakashi, you're one of the best jounin we have, and you're Naruto's sensei, so you know him well. You've also fought Akatsuki before, so you know what you're up against. Neji, we needed a Hyuuga on this mission and you're the best there is. Even Hiashi agrees. And Ino, your infiltration skills will be needed in the secondary mission of establishing safe houses. More than that, you're one of the very few people in the village besides Naruto and Kakashi themselves to have encountered an Akatsuki and survived. That's as important as anything else."

"We got lucky," Ino contended.

"When it comes to Akatsuki, luck is sometimes all you've got," Kakashi said. "The fact remains that there aren't many ninja in Konoha who could have gone up against one of them and come out alive."

Ino wanted to contest further, but held her tongue. She supposed what they were saying was true, in a sense. And really, they did manage to get away from that blue-haired woman on their own, even if Shikamaru did most of the work. If it hadn't been for Jin'e they wouldn't have needed Sanjuro's help at all. Maybe.

"I want you all to leave tonight after dark," Tsunade said. That was a surprise. Why hold the meeting in the morning? "That way it'll look like we're being secretive, but not too much. If anyone asks what your mission is about, just say you'll be traveling for a while, and feel free to mention who's going with you. We don't know how Akatsuki gathers their intelligence, so we want to make sure they know where Naruto's going without making it look like we want them to know."

"Is that possible?" Neji interjected. "Forgive me, but Naruto is not exactly known for his…subtlety." Ino stifled a giggle, and even Shizune and the Hokage had trouble hiding their amusement at Naruto's indignant snort.

"That's all part of the plan," Kakashi explained. "Naruto's going to act the same as he always would; it would be suspicious otherwise, and it's a good way to get the word out that he'll be leaving the village without being too obvious about it."

Naruto threw a quick "so there" sneer at Neji that made Ino giggle again. It wasn't really _that _funny; she was still just overly giddy.

"That's all there is," Tsunade said. "Good luck to all of you. Ino, I hope you had the seals in place." In the middle of getting out of her chair, Ino froze and blushed scarlet. Neji and Kakashi were pointedly looking elsewhere, while Naruto seemed confused and curious. Had she been that obvious? And worse, did the Hokage have to bring it up in front of everyone?

"H…hai, Hokage-sama," she answered meekly. Embarrassment and anger warred with the guilty knowledge that she had it coming and had probably gotten off light.

"Good," Tsunade nodded sternly, though there was a merry glint in her eye that made Ino want to rage at her. The nerve of the woman! "It's going to be a long mission, after all. Complications of that sort would be a disaster." Then she made a gesture that said the four of them were dismissed.

"What was she talking about?" Naruto asked Ino as soon as the doors were closed behind them. "What seals?"

Ino blushed madly again, definitely more from anger this time, but Kakashi stepped in and saved her. Or Naruto. Well, he saved one of them.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto," he said. "It's between Ino and the Hokage."

"What?" He questioned, looking from person to person, all of whom were giving him a look that said to just let it go. Finally he shrugged. "Oh, all right," the blond said, though it was clear he was still utterly bewildered. Neji just sighed and shook his head. Ino inwardly growled. _That_ guy had probably seen it all over her face the second she walked into the room. Before, come to think of it. She didn't know if Kakashi had known right away also or if he figured it out once the Hokage mentioned the birth control seals, but she wouldn't be surprised either way.

"You kids go pack and do whatever you need to do," Kakashi told them. "I'll meet you at the north gate an hour after sunset." With that, he vanished.

"That means we have until about midnight," Naruto said, and the three of them continued walking through the tower's corridors. "I don't know what to do today," he went on, placing his hands behind his head. "I already said goodbye to Sakura-chan yesterday, so it would be kind of awkward to do it again."

"I know what you mean," Ino concurred emphatically. After the goodbye she'd had with Shikamaru, it would be too weird to go spend another day with him, no matter how much she ached to run straight back to his house at that very moment.

"You two do what you want; I'm going to train for the rest of the day," Neji said, and he left them at the front door to the tower, heading toward the Hyuuga compound.

"Hey, that's it!" Naruto exclaimed. "Training!"

"Seriously?" Ino asked.

"Sure. I was going to teach you the _kage bunshin_, right? This is the perfect time to do it, and then you can practice on the road."

Ino smiled brightly. "That sounds good to me. And definitely less awkward than hanging out with people we've already said goodbye to."

And so he took her to one of the village's many training areas where she sat on a log and watched while he looked through his bag for something.

"I know I have a blank one in here somewhere," he muttered, and began pulling scroll after scroll out of his bag, glancing at them, and setting them down neatly on the ground.

"What do you need a blank scroll for?" she asked, curious.

"Well, I've never actually taught anybody anything before," he said without looking up. _'Except for Konohamaru and _Oiroke no jutsu,' he thought to himself with a chuckle. "I don't really know how to do it. But I learned the technique from a scroll, so I thought maybe if I made a new one for you it might help"

"Do you know how to write a technique scroll?" she asked. It didn't seem like the sort of scholarly thing he'd be able to do.

"No idea," he replied. "But I still remember mostly what the original one looked like. I can just write it out again for you."

"You remember an A-level technique scroll from four years ago?" She was astonished, to say the least. Remembering a technique was simple once you started using it all the time. But to remember the scroll after all those years? How had he not done better in the academy?

"Well, mostly," he said, discarding yet another scroll and diving back into the bag. "I did have to study it really hard to learn the jutsu, after all. It kinda sticks with you. AH! Here's one." He pulled out a blank scroll and unfurled it, and then began to write on it, pausing occasionally to rub his chin, presumably in an attempt to remember something about the original scroll.

After ten minutes or so, during which Ino waited patiently but with much anticipation, Naruto declared he was finished. While it wasn't perfect, he said, it was as good as it was going to get and hopefully he could use his own experience with the jutsu to fill in the gaps.

"Let me see!" Ino cried excitedly and leapt down from her perch, coming over to kneel on the ground next to him and observe what he had made. When she laid eyes on it, her face fell and she almost felt like falling over.

"Are you serious?" she snapped at him. "This looks like a first year academy student wrote it!"

"I told you I don't know anything about making technique scrolls!" he protested indignantly. "All of the important stuff is there!"

Ino looked again. The handwriting was sub-par but not terrible, but the organization of the scroll was awful. Diagrams of the chakra paths necessary for the jutsu were sloppy, and the focus marks that linked one step in the process to the next were absent completely. Ino was familiar enough with the process of making scrolls (though she had never made one herself, she understood how it was done) to fill in a few of the gaps, but most of that was educated guesswork on her part. At least he'd managed to write out the required hand seals correctly. The timing and significance of each one was only briefly annotated, but she could get by on that part by having him demonstrate.

"Okay, so it's not that bad," she admitted. "Considering you have no experience making scrolls and this is completely from memory, I'm actually a little impressed. Hopefully whatever isn't covered on here you can show me."

"Now that's something I _can_ do," he declared confidently. "Why don't you practice the hand seals for a minute and get used to them?"

"All right," she complied. She looked back to the scroll to see the complex sequence of seals and was about to start running through them when something occurred to her.

"Hold on a second," she said. "I've seen you do this jutsu dozens of times, including way back before you could possibly have been good enough with hand seals to hide that many of them. All I ever see you do is one seal that I don't even know." She looked and found it at the end of the sequence – the capstone seal that was the key to the entire jutsu. And then she understood. Her family's jutsu were much the same.

"The seals are just to get you used to the chakra paths," Naruto said, even as she arrived at that conclusion on her own. "Once you know it, you can skip them all except for the last one. That's the one that powers the jutsu."

"Of course, I don't know why I didn't think of that," she said, actually feeling a little silly. "Most of my family's jutsu work the same way. But to become that familiar with a technique's chakra paths takes a long time. And you were already using just the final seal by our first chuunin exam."

"I, um, practiced this jutsu _really_ hard," he explained, rubbing the back of his head and grinning sheepishly.

"You must have," she said, impressed. "It took me six months to be able to do _Shintenshin no jutsu_ with just the final seal, and that's the simplest of my family's techniques."

"Hehehe," he laughed, looking a little embarrassed. "Well, at the time, I had a really strong reason to learn it. I failed the graduation exam and Mizuki told me that if I learned a technique off the Scroll of the Sealed, Iruka-sensei would have to let me graduate. I believed him, of course, so that's why I worked so hard on it."

"I remember that," Ino said, thinking back. "We were all wondering why you were there the day our teams were chosen; we thought you didn't graduate." Then something occurred to her. "Wait…are you saying you learned the kage bunshin in _one day?_"

"Yeah, that night I kinda stole the Scroll of the Sealed from the old man's office and snuck into the forest with it."

"You _stole_ the…from the Third's…in _ONE NIGHT_?"

"Uh-huh. Then Mizuki came and I found out the whole thing was a trick so he could steal the scroll and blame it on me."

"So that's what happened to him," Ino mused, only half paying attention at this point. The story was getting more and more unbelievable with each passing second.

"Anyway, by that time I'd learned the jutsu so I used it to help Iruka-sensei when he came to save me. And then he gave me my hitai-ate and let me graduate."

"Huh," was all Ino could say. She'd long since learned that Naruto was a talented ninja and not the screw-up he'd appeared to be in the academy, but even so the idea of him mastering a technique like the kage bunshin in a single night while technically still an academy student was a lot to take in.

"So do you think you're ready to start?" Naruto asked after a few seconds of silence. Ino had to think for a moment to remember what he was talking about.

"What? Oh! Yes, of course. Let me see it again." She looked at the seals on the scroll and at Naruto's rudimentary drawings of the chakra paths. If she was going to be learning from this, it was definitely going to take more than one day.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Several hours later, once she had committed the seal sequence to memory and could perform it in about a second, Ino was still having trouble molding her chakra in the right manner. Naruto was trying to help, but he was having trouble putting his explanations into words. She was trying not to get frustrated, but it was difficult. Not to mention she didn't have anywhere near his stamina and was beginning to tire herself out.

"You've gotta focus it…around here somewhere," Naruto was saying, pointing to a spot a few inches above his solar plexus. "And make sure not to release it too early."

"I know, I know!" she cried, doing her best not to snap. Well, she knew about the timing thing anyway. Whatever else he was talking about, she had no idea.

"Do you think we should stop?" he asked. "You're looking kind of winded."

"Maybe," she admitted. "Just let me try it one more time." She formed the seals – slowly this time so as to make sure she got everything exactly right – and when she felt the chakra molding itself within her she made the final seal and released it. _Kage bunshin no jutsu!_ Ino felt a huge amount of energy suddenly drain out of her and there was a puff of smoke to her left, which after dissipating revealed…nothing.

"You almost had it that time!" Naruto cheered enthusiastically. "Do it again just like that but hold on to the chakra more when you release it and I think it'll work!"

She had no idea what he meant when he said "hold on" to the chakra, but was pleased to have finally made some progress. She allowed herself a wan smile, even as she doubled over to catch her breath.

"I don't think so," she said. "That last one took whatever energy I had left right out of me. Even if we didn't have a mission in four hours it wouldn't be a good idea."

"Hmm, yeah, you're probably right," he nodded. "You should get some rest and some food before we go."

"You think?" she asked him sarcastically. "I'm going to go take a nap, and then I'm going to hit Sakura up for dinner before we leave."

"You're going to talk to Sakura-chan?" he asked, jerking his head back to her as if she'd said she was going to reveal his secret to everyone they knew.

"Yeeeaahh," she said slowly, not really realizing what the big deal was. "There was something I wanted to talk to her about. What do you care, anyway? I told you I wouldn't tell her anything."

"No, no, it's not that," he said, waving his hands. "I believed you about that. It's just that…well, I kinda thought we were leaving in the morning so that's what I told her, and…well, I don't want her to think I lied to her and was hanging around all day avoiding her or something."

Ino laughed and shook her head. "You really are hopeless, aren't you?" When he looked so pathetic, like a sad puppy, she took pity on him. "Look, she doesn't even know we're going on the same mission. But even if she figures it out, I'll tell her the truth: you thought we were leaving in the morning. So did I. And that we've been working together today to prepare for the mission. That's true enough."

"It still feels like I'm sneaking out of something," he brooded.

"Well, you can come see her quickly before we go if you want. BUT, you are not coming with me. What I need to talk about is private and it's none of your business."

"Is it about you and Shikamaru sleeping together?" he asked. "Because I really don't want to hear about that anyway."

Ino face-faulted and felt a huge vein throbbing in her head. "I _said_, it's none of your business," she said as murderously calm as she could manage."

"All right, then," he said, either not picking up on her killing intent or not commenting on it. "I'll come meet you guys around ten minutes before we need to join up with Kakashi-sensei. See you later." A small puff of smoke appeared and he was gone.

"That guy…" Ino growled to herself as she turned to trudge back home.

-o-o-o-o-o-

It had been a relatively short day for Sakura. Tsunade was busy with strategy meetings all day, so she'd trained with Shizune and Hinata on poison remedies. In this area Tsunade was still the best, but no one in Konoha was more skilled than Shizune in actually _making_ poisons, so it was a valuable learning experience.

They had been let go early because Hinata had requested some time to look in on her sister's training. She had mentioned that morning about Naruto's request that she look after Konohamaru as well while he was away, and Sakura thought it was very sweet of Naruto to be thinking about that, as well as it being very cute that Hinata was taking the request so seriously.

So she had been going home with the intention of practicing some seal work for the rest of the evening – her genjutsu still needed a lot of improvement, despite Kakashi and Kurenai both saying she had a knack for it – when she was accosted by Ino in the street and informed they would be getting some dinner together.

"I thought you were leaving on a mission today?" Sakura said as Ino dragged her into the first restaurant they came across. She didn't even know what kind of food they served here.

"I am," Ino assured her. "After sunset, though. And I need to talk to you." She sat down in a secluded booth leaving Sakura no choice but to join her or stand there like an idiot.

"All right, all right, talk," she said, sidling into the booth across from her friend.

"Wait until the food's here," Ino said. "I don't want to be interrupted or overheard by someone on the staff." Sakura rolled her eyes but obliged, and waited patiently for their order to be filled. Sakura ordered tonkatsu, which she normally avoided but felt like indulging in for some reason, and Ino surprised her by ordering udon. At Sakura's questioning glance Ino waved her off, saying, "I did a lot of training today and I need to get my energy back up before I leave on this mission." Sakura shrugged and dug into her meal, and shot her friend a very meaningful glance that said, 'Get on with it.'

"Okay, here's the thing," Ino said, looking all around her to make sure no one was listening in. Sakura found herself getting wound up in spite of herself. Ino was never this jittery with gossip unless it was something huge, and usually about her.

Ino finally seemed satisfied no one was eavesdropping and leaned across the table to whisper in a voice so soft Sakura almost couldn't hear, "Shikamaru and I slept together."

"WHAAAT?" Sakura shouted. She couldn't help it. Of all the things she had expected Ino to say, that was probably at the very bottom of the list, or near enough.

"Keep it down!" Ino hissed, frantically looking around again. People had looked over at Sakura's outburst, but were already returning their attention to their own meals.

"Sorry," she whispered trying to make it look like she was just interested in her food. "That's just…not what I was expecting."

"That makes two of us," Ino quipped.

"So how did this happen?" Sakura asked between bites, fully recovered from the shock now and hungry for all the juicy details. "I mean, I could tell something was going on between you two but I didn't think you'd gone that far."

"We hadn't really, until a few days ago. I got us out of a tight spot on our mission to Amegakure and Shikamaru kissed me, and –"

"Whoa, stop!" Sakura butted in. "Shikamaru kissed you? As in _he_ made the first move? Are you serious?"

"I am!" insisted Ino, and the smile adorning her face certainly seemed to confirm it. "It was out of nowhere, too! And it had me distracted for the rest of the mission until we were ambushed by that woman from Akatsuki, and then he got hurt and was in the hospital, and we didn't really get a chance to talk, but we didn't need to, you know? It's like…it should have been awkward, but it wasn't. And then when I went to see him yesterday to say goodbye, it just sort of…happened." Ino finished her one-breath tirade with a very sappy grin on her face that made Sakura either want to sigh or vomit; she wasn't sure.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" she said, reaching across the table to take Ino's hands. "So was it amazing?"

"It was," Ino said, still with that far-off, dreamy look on her face. Then all of a sudden her face and voice came back to reality a little. "I mean, the first time is a little rough; you're both just kind of figuring each other out and everything, but after that…"

"Ack! Ack! Ack! Enough, enough!" Sakura shrieked, holding her hands up and sticking out her tongue, though she couldn't help but laugh a little. "I get it, I get it."

"And then this morning he told me he loves me," Ino gushed.

"Really? He did?" A very enthusiastic nod was the only reply given to that. "Wow. That almost doesn't sound much like Shikamaru."

"Believe me, the way he said it was very much like Shikamaru," Ino deadpanned. "And the idiot got me so caught up in it that I was late for my mission briefing this morning."

"You wouldn't have changed a thing, though," Sakura called her out.

"You're right, I wouldn't."

"So now what?" Sakura asked. "I mean, you're going on this long mission…geez, everyone's going on one of those these days. You, Naruto, and I think even Kakashi-sensei has one."

"Yeah, about that," Ino said, her tone shifting dramatically. "They're actually on my team for the mission. Neji, too."

"They are?" Sakura asked, confused. "I thought Naruto said he was leaving in the morning."

"That's what we all thought yesterday, but no." Ino then giggled inexplicably. "The poor guy was terrified you were going to think he lied to you or something," she said. "I had to say he could come by after I finished talking to you so you wouldn't think he was avoiding you or something."

It was Sakura's turn to giggle now as she shook her head fondly. "He really is hopeless sometimes."

"I know, right?" Ino exclaimed. "That's what I said!"

"Well I guess I shouldn't be too hard on him then, if he was that worried about it," Sakura joked.

"Speak of the devil…" Ino said, and Sakura looked to see that at that moment the ninja they'd just been speaking of was in the restaurant walking toward them.

"It's almost time to go," he told Ino, then he looked at Sakura and smiled. "If I'd known we weren't leaving until this evening I would have asked you to dinner tonight while we were out yesterday, Sakura-chan," he said. Sakura felt herself blush a little but had to hide it to shoot a death glare at Ino when she caught the other girl giving her a very shrewd look.

"That's okay, Naruto," Sakura said. "Ino had something important to tell me anyway, so it worked out fine."

"Was it about – " Naruto began, but Ino quickly – and loudly – cut him off.

"Well, we'd better go, then!" she practically yelled and jumped up from her seat. At some point during the conversation they'd both finished eating, but Sakura couldn't be sure when. "This one's on me, Forehead. Thanks for listening."

"Sure," she said, deciding to take Ino's sudden odd behavior in stride and not argue about a free meal. Ino went up to pay and Sakura turned to her long-time teammate. "Hinata told me you asked her to look out for Konohamaru," she said. "I think it's very sweet of you to worry about him like that."  
"Yeah, well he kinda reminds me of what I was like back then, and I kind of got us into a lot of trouble, remember?"

"I remember," she smiled.

"All right, let's go," said Ino, coming back over. Naruto quickly said goodbye one more time but Sakura grabbed Ino's arm and asked him to give them one moment before leaving.

"Okay. I'll meet you outside," he said to Ino, then left them. The girls both watched him go and then Ino turned to speak.

"You know, if he – " she began, but Sakura didn't let her finish.

"Look after him for me, okay, Ino?" she said in the most serious voice she could muster.

"Eh?"

"He gets excited sometimes and goes overboard and gets himself into all sorts of trouble, and he promised me he'd try to work on it and I trust him, but I still worry. Just make sure he stays all right, will you?"

"You got it," her friend said. "And besides, Neji and Kakashi-sensei will be there. What's to worry about?" And though the words made her feel better, there was just something about the way Ino said it that made her feel like there was something she wasn't being told.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Why are we leaving so early?" Ino asked Naruto on the way to the rendezvous point. "I thought you said we'd have until about midnight."

"That's what I thought too, but remember this morning, how the old hag tricked Kakashi-sensei into being on time? He'll want to get us back for that, even though it wasn't our fault. I bet if we get there late he'll already be there and he'll lay into us or something."

"Would he really do that?" Ino asked. Naruto gave her a wry look.

"Trust me, if you knew Kakashi-sensei, you wouldn't be asking that."

They arrived at the meeting point five minutes before the appointed time to find Neji already there, but no Kakashi. Naruto was sure he was going to pop out any moment and lament that his plan hadn't worked, or to berate them anyway even though they weren't late, but the meeting time came and went and nothing happened. Ino shot Naruto an annoyed look which he could only respond to with an embarrassed shrug. Finally, around midnight, Kakashi showed up and greeted them with a jaunty wave.

"Sorry I'm late," he said. "I was helping an old woman with her groceries and she invited me in for dinner."

"Liar!" Naruto and Ino both shouted at the same time. Neji merely picked up his backpack and put it on as if he'd only been waiting for a few minutes instead of a few hours. Naruto was furious with himself. He thought for sure he'd read through Kakashi's tricks this time.

As they were walking out of the village, he felt his sensei lean down from behind him and whisper in his ear, "Gotcha."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Deep in a secret underground facility in central Sound Country, a small dark figure crept along the completely unmanned tunnels. While any sentries could have been avoided with relative ease, she couldn't help but scoff at the lack of security.

Around another corner, and Ootori Noriki finally saw what she'd been seeking: the dim lights of a lab after hours. She made her way along the wall to the end of the corridor and peeked in. Medical equipment along with various tools for experimentation filled the chamber. Along the shelves and walls were aligned all sorts of grisly things, from carvings of demons to assorted organs and body parts. In a jar she spotted what she had come for, and silently crossed the room to obtain it. It was almost disappointingly easy.

She felt the presence just as she lifted the jar, but there was no killing intent. Not yet, anyway. She took what she needed without disturbing the rest of the jar's contents and turned to face the interloper. It was who she expected.

"Have you come to kill me?" Orochimaru asked, almost amused.

"If I had, you wouldn't have found me in here," she replied calmly.

"So they've decided a replacement is necessary, have they?" he asked, his eyes for a fraction of a second fixing on the jar behind her. So he knew what she'd come for. No matter.

"I didn't say I _wouldn't_ kill you," she said, observing him. Once he was certain there was nothing to learn or gain from her he would attack. "In fact they'll likely be pleased if I do."

"They would be," he confirmed. "Fortunately, that's not something I'm concerned about." Quick as a flash, his left arm shot forward and a half dozen snakes fired out as if from a cannon. Moving like a snake herself, she deftly weaved through all of them, all the while moving toward him and the exit. When his right hand repeated the performance, she slinked through them again and edged by him, taking a token swing with her tanto as she passed, which he lazily avoided.

"Much as I'd love to," she declared, forming seals "we'll have to do this another time." _Kaminari no jutsu_. And in an instant, she moved as a flash of lightning back through the facility, up through the cave entrance and to the surface.

As soon as she set foot on the ground, the deafening sound of a thousand birds told her to dodge once again. Not a second later, a young man with spiky black hair wearing an old-fashioned male style kimono stood where she had just been with his arm embedded deep into the ground and the remnants of electrical chakra fading from around it. He turned to face her and her attention was drawn to his eyes, from which she immediately looked away, surreptitiously performing a genjutsu release just in case.

"An Uchiha," she intoned. "Interesting. I'd heard there was only one of you left."

"Two," the man corrected, straightening himself and drawing his sword.

"You and Orochimaru in one day. My, that would be something," she mused. "But unfortunately I'm on a schedule."

She removed her top to reveal a second one underneath that left her back bare and held itself up with only a single strap around your neck. A large seal was visible on each of her shoulderblades.

"If you think I'm going to let you leave here, you're a fool," the young Uchiha said, and suddenly there was an enormous fireball shooting toward her. She leapt up and over it, making seals as she went, since his own technique served to hide her from those eyes of his. _Raikouhou no jutsu! _Lighting swirled around her into the form of a great lion, which opened its enormous jaws to release a massive torrent of electrical energy toward her foe, which he effortless deflected with some kind of technique she'd never seen, but that made the same chirping sound as the one he'd used earlier. This one would be worth keeping alive if only to learn a few things from.

As soon as she landed again she ran toward him with her tanto drawn, but he only smiled arrogantly. "Did you think I would let you hide from my sharingan so easily?" he scoffed, then fired off the _raikouhou no jutsu _right back at her.

'_And did you think I wouldn't have thought of that?'_ she derided him in her head. As soon as the attack struck her, she channeled the energy into her _kaminari no jutsu_ and traveled to a distant outcropping of rocks.

"Thank you for the assistance," she called. "Now here's one your eyes can't help you with." She focused her chakra and released the seals on her back, revealing two enormous wings. She took off into the air at once. "I'll be back for you," she called down at him. "You're going to teach me that trick of yours before I kill you." And then she was gone.

-o-o-o-o-o-

-o-o-o-o-o-

-o-o-o-o-o-

Well that only took what, a year? And a few months? I'm really incredibly sorry. Not long after I finished the last chapter I got a full-time job that left me pretty tired most of the time and I didn't really have any opportunities to write. After I quit that in the spring I moved to Korea and as you can imagine it has been an adjustment. I have free time over here, but it took me a little while to get back into writing again. Hopefully this is the last major delay of that kind. I mean, a few months is par for the course, but this was frankly embarrassing.

I had wanted to post this up on my birthday (the 18th), and while the initial copy was finished a few days before that, I would never dream of putting it up without my prereader, HitokiriOTD taking a look first. He's kinda busy, and as he's doing me a huge favor I never press him. I'm glad I waited; I may not have gotten to give myself an you all a birthday present, but the chapter sucks significantly less now that he's gone over it. The typos alone were enough to humiliate me out of writing forever if they'd gone public.

Now that I've got myself sorted out and I'm into a bit of a routine over here, it would not be unreasonable to expect another chapter finished by around Christmas time. I'd say American Thanksgiving, but I don't want to push it. However, I don't know how many readers I have left after all this time. If you're still out there and are looking for more, be sure to let me know. Also tell me if this is terrible now and I should stop. I could always write a story about One Piece instead.

There were some other things I was going to say, I'm sure of it, but I've completely forgotten them at this point. Maybe next time. Translations follow, and as always I love to read reviews.

_Kaminari no jutsu – _Lightning technique

_Raikouhou no jutsu – _Thunder roar cannon technique


	11. Episode X: The Summoning

There is no excuse. I was busy and stressed, then I was moving, then I was on vacation, then I was lazy, then I was looking for a new job. Those are all explanations, but feeble excuses at best. In return, I hope this chapter is at least worth half the wait you all have endured for it – if indeed anyone came back to read this at all. If you did, leaving a review would really help to get my spirits up again, as writing this alternated between being kind of fun and feeling like work. I miss the excitement I used to get out of writing this, and knowing there are still people out there enjoying it despite my long absence might help to recapture some of that.

In any case, I've always said I'd finish this story whether it took me a year or a decade, and while the latter is starting to look like a conservative estimate, I intend to hold true on that promise. This story WILL be completed, no matter how long it takes.

Unless I die. In that case, you're kind of SOL.

O-O-O-O-O-O

SHINOBI WARS: Episode X – The Summoning

"I can't believe you said that!" Ino guffawed at the conclusion of Naruto's retelling of a rather memorable mission in which he'd been caught by Sakura in a somewhat compromising position with a village girl in a mixed bath. He insisted it was completely innocent.

"It was the first thing that came to my mind!" Naruto defended himself. Though truth be told, while he could laugh about it now, even talking about that incident brought back a phantom pain to the back of his head.

"Usually I'll say Sakura's too hard on you, but that time you definitely deserved it," Ino grinned.

"Yeah, I really did," he chuckled, rubbing the spot on his head whence the long-vanished throb was emanating. The two of them were in disguise as civilians and were travelling along the road ahead of Kakashi and Neji. They were supposed to be putting on an air of casual merriment as they moved from one village to the next, ostensibly just looking for a place to have fun. It was exceedingly easy to pull off, as to the surprise of them both, Ino and Naruto got on exceptionally well together.

The first village had been an exercise in simplicity. After only three days of surveillance they had determined it to be free of enemy operatives and established a worthy safe house. The second village had only taken five days. They were on their way to the third and their travelling friends ruse was becoming less of a ruse and more a basic reality.

"So how did you get her to forgive you for that one?" Ino asked after their laughter had died down.

"Well, once she found out that Rumiko was actually just trying to find her dog and the innkeeper had spilled oil on the rocks, she felt bad about getting mad and hitting me. I guess she figured me making dumb comments was a fair trade and let it go."

Ino shook her head. "That girl really needs to learn to stop jumping to conclusions. You'd think as a ninja she'd have mastered that by now."

"Hahaha. Maybe. Though that only ever seems to happen when she thinks I've done something stupid or perverted."

"Really?" Ino paused to consider that. "Hmmm. There's a psychoanalysis to be made here, but damned if I know what it is."

"Psycho-what?"

"Analysis. You know, figuring out what's going on in Sakura's head based on her actions."

"Oh," Naruto replied. There was a long silence. Then, "But I thought your clan was all about mind stuff."

"We specialize in jutsu that can manipulate or control someone's mind, not understand it," she explained. "That's more Shikamaru's thing."

"You think I should ask him?"

Ino grinned. "Not unless you like hearing him complain. To be completely honest, he's not likely to care, and it'll bother him that you couldn't figure it out for youself."

Naruto nodded and hummed in agreement. He was silent for a moment, contemplating, then shook his head in defeat and continued walking.

"You're probably right," he said. "Sakura's something I've got to figure out for myself or it doesn't mean anything, right?"

Ino could not recall having said any such thing, but she agreed with him nonetheless and told him so.

"How long is it supposed to be to this village, anyway?" He asked a few seconds later. "I'm getting really hungry." As if to emphasize the point, his stomach chose just that moment to gurgle loudly and he put his hands over it. Ino couldn't help but laugh.

"I swear you can do that on command," she said. "And I'm not sure, but I think it should only be…" she trailed off and looked ahead. Could that be…?

"What is it?" Naruto asked. She made sure to answer him in a way that would still sound casual but with enough change that he would know to take her seriously.

"Keep walking, but look ahead to that bridge. Don't stare." He made a quick glance hidden within a contented deep breath of fresh air, then turned back to her. She could see in his eyes he'd seen it too.

"Is that a person standing there?"

"Either that, or a really bad place to put a statue."

"They're waiting for us, you think?" he asked, still putting one foot in front of the other as if absolutely nothing was wrong. She did the same.

"Probably. But even if they aren't, we're going to meet up with them in a few minutes anyway, and it would look really suspicious if we turned away now. There isn't another crossing around here for miles."

"Should we play it cool, do you think?" he asked. This surprised her somewhat.

"Why are you asking me? You're the jounin here."

He shrugged. "I don't know. You work with Shikamaru a lot, so you're probably a lot smarter than me when it comes to strategy and stuff." Ino forced herself to remain in control, which was difficult as she wasn't even sure what emotion she was suppressing in reaction to that comment.

"Don't sell yourself short," she told him. "I've seen you pull of some crazy plans. I'll never forget how you outsmarted Neji in our first chuunin exam, and Shikamaru and Sakura are both always trying to convince everyone you're smarter than people give you credit for. Though I never thought they were including you in that, too."

"Really? They said that?" he asked. "Most of the time I just make it up as I go." The way his face lit up like a kid at a surprise party was really just too cute. But that would have to wait.

"I think we're getting off-topic," she said, lowering her eyelids. "And we're still walking." She gestured lightly to the figure in the distance, now discernible as a woman, or if a man then one with hair long enough to drift in the breeze.

"Right," Naruto nodded, his features all business again. "So let's play it cool and see what happens. It might be nothing. And if it's a trap, we can handle it." Ino wasn't sure if she should be nervous or reassured at how confident he sounded.

Closing in on the bridge, they could see that their mysterious encounter was indeed a woman, with violet-colored hair that went about halfway down her back. Her body type was roughly the same as Ino's, perhaps a little slimmer, a little shorter, and with slightly smaller breasts. A teenager then, most likely. She was wearing an orange vest that was long enough to double as a skirt, thick brown boots, and lavender stockings that ran all the way up to mid-thigh. The most distinguishing aspect of her appearance – at least to Ino – was a white band she wore in a similar fashion to Sakura's old ribbon, only this girl wore it on top of her bangs instead of behind them.

There was also a katana at her hip. And her hand was on the hilt.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Konan was nervous – an emotion she hadn't truly felt in over a decade. And the reason was another emotion she hadn't seen in a very long time: Pein was angry. Very, very angry.

"As soon as Kisame and Itachi arrive we will begin," he declared, barely containing his fury. He looked around at the other members of Akatsuki, and though none of them were physically present, even they seemed to be shuddering in apprehension over what this meeting was going to entail for them. Just then, the two aforementioned shinobi flickered into being among them.

"Sorry we're late," Kisame announced with a bow. "It took longer than usual to find a secure location."

"Ninja from every country and village are swarming all over the place," Kakuzu grumbled. "It's making our tasks exceedingly difficult."

"Is that your excuse for failure, Kakuzu?" Pein asked coldly, shifting his gaze toward to the former Waterfall ninja. "Too many ants swarming about? I should think the confusion would make things easier, not harder." Kakuzu was smart enough not to respond.

"This is why I have called you here," Pein continued. "Evidently you all are not as capable as I had thought. Hidan's failure to capture the Two-Tails, and Noriki's subsequent failure to correct his mistake have set us back a great deal." The young Cloud kunoichi shrank away at the rebuke. Surely, it was not as grand an entrance into the organization as the girl had hoped. At least she had managed to obtain the ring from Orochimaru as instructed.

"This alone would be cause enough for concern, but there is also the matter of Zetsu misplacing the Seven-Tails." That had been a shock. Zetsu was the only member of Akatsuki aside from Konan herself allowed to operate independently, and they usually used him for reconnaissance purposes, but even he had his assignment. When he'd reported the girl from Waterfall captured, they'd assumed that would be the end of it. Not so, apparently. Like Kakuzu, Hidan and Noriki before him, Zetsu wisely did not attempt to say anything in his defense.

"It would seem I placed too much faith in all of you. Thus far, only Kisame and Sasori have managed to complete their assignments, and we cannot carry out our plans with only the Four and Six-Tails in our possession. Therefore, we shall restructure our plans. Konan, you will accompany Hidan and Kakuzu to track down the Seven Tails. Noriki will travel with Sasori and Deidara to Sunagakure to apprehend the Kazekage, who is currently under very little guard. As this is an obvious trap, I leave it to you to decide how to proceed, but failure is unacceptable." All five ninja nodded and were dismissed. She would leave to join her group as soon as the meeting was concluded. Pein then turned to the only two not yet to be addressed – the only ones powerful enough to be truly relied upon, it seemed. "Itachi, I am reassigning you to the Three-Tails. It is currently without a host and thus should be subdued by your Sharingan with relative ease. Afterwards I have other tasks for you and Kisame."

"Understood," Itachi replied. "And what of the Nine-Tails?"

"Kakuzu's sources place him headed North. Zetsu, can you confirm this?"

"The last I saw of him, yes," Zetsu said.

"Very well." Pein turned to her now. "Konan, you will deal with the Nine-Tails jinchuuriki after reacquiring the Seven-Tails."

"Understood," she said. Her original assignment had been the Eight-Tails, as he had been deemed the most powerful and thus the most dangerous, but clearly Pein had other plans for that one now.

"Let us hope that we are not delayed any further," Pein declared. "You are all dismissed." The others finally flickered away and Konan was left alone with Pein. For the first time since hearing of the Seven-Tails' escape, she relaxed. That hadn't gone nearly as bad as she'd thought.

"I'm counting on you, Konan," he said to her in quiet tones he never used when others were present. "Above all else, make sure Hidan doesn't waste time with those rituals of his. That was a large part of what allowed the Two-Tails to escape."

"And the Kyuubi?" she asked. Being given that assignment was not as shocking as Itachi losing it.

"Itachi says he's been trained by Jiraiya himself, and Kisame was quite impressed with his combat abilities."

"Jiraiya?" she asked, shocked. She hadn't been expecting that. "And Kisame was impressed? Is there anything else I should know?"

"He may be in the company of the Copy Ninja, Hatake Kakashi. Your companions should be able to deal with him, but all the same, use caution."

"I will. It's time I go, then." She bowed to the man her only living friend had become and exited the chamber, preparing to meet up with a pair of immortal psychopaths. Keeping the two of them in line was likely to be as challenging as capturing her target.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Sango hobbled along the hallway of the holding cells. The building wasn't a prison so much as it was a place to keep people the village didn't yet know what to do with. Her feet were still sore despite expert healing and walking was still a chore, but it was getting better every day. The tray of food she carried wasn't even shaking today, as it had every other time she'd come here. Eight times in the two and a half weeks they'd been back in the village.

She didn't know why she came. The sight of the man from the Hidden Mist still made her skin crawl, and certainly there were others who could bring him his food, but for whatever reason she felt compelled. Even with everything else he'd undoubtedly done during his tenure with her enemies, Shirotani Ichigo had saved her and her siblings' lives – twice, in fact. She had trouble reconciling that with the idea of him being one of the infamous Seven Swordsman. And so she came. Words were exchanged, Sango would grow irritated, and inevitably storm off, only to return in another couple of days when her uneasiness would overcome her again.

She nodded to the two guards on duty outside his door. They returned the gesture, used to her visits by now. She waited for them to draw their weapons as a standard precaution before she rapped on the door and slid open the panel that would allow her to slide the tray of food inside. In addition to being given comfortable quarters, he certainly wasn't eating like any prisoner Sango ever heard of. And if that irked her, she still knew it wouldn't be right to simply throw him away after what he'd done for them.

The inner panel slid open, and Shirotani's face appeared as he reached for his meal. He caught sight of her and grinned, giving her a view of those disturbing, pointed teeth.

"Was wondering when I'd be seeing you again," he remarked, and Sango frowned. So she was that predictable now, was she? Well, wouldn't it serve him right if she just turned and walked away without a word?

But of course she couldn't do that. It would just mean she'd be coming back even sooner the next time.

"You don't have to act so smug about it," she snarled. He knew perfectly well she had no more idea than anyone else why she kept returning. This despite what she said next. "I've already told you that I can be grateful to you for saving my family, even if you're my enemy underneath it all."

"Are you still on that?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "If I was your enemy, I could've killed you or just let you die a dozen times by now. And in case you forgot, I saved _your_ life, too." Her eyes involuntarily flicked to the shoulder he'd been stabbed in when jumping in the path of an attack that had been meant for her heart. It was a quick look, but he noticed and smirked again. That was too much, and Sango scoffed. Feelings of discomfit be damned, she didn't have to put up with this. She turned to leave, but before she could slide the panel shut, Shirotani called from his cell. "Wait! Just tell me how my sister's doing!"

She turned toward him again, and all the superior smugness of before had left his eyes, to be replaced with concern and something like desperation. Sighing deeply, she relented and stayed.

"She's fine," Sango told him plainly. "Just like she was the last time you asked. She's staying on our family compound like I said, and my little sister Yuri acts like they've been best friends forever."

"That's good," Shirotani said, visibly relaxing. He wore a real smile now, not the mocking one from before. "Any word from your Koorikage yet?"

Here Sango hesitated. She knew he was asking about whether or not Ringo would be allowed to join the village's ninja academy – a decision which had actually been made a week ago (yes, on a provisional basis), but which Sango had thus far been reluctant to share with their "guest". The Koorikage himself had given her clearance to divulge the information if she saw fit, but she still wasn't sure if it was prudent and had sidestepped the question during her last two visits.

"He says…" she paused, chewing her lip. What harm would it do, really? And the Koorikage had given the okay, after all. "He says she can enroll, but that she'll still be watched."

"Really?" Shirotani asked, looking like a bolt of lightning had just shot through him. "That's great! I mean, I figured if he said anything, it would be that they'd want to watch her for another six months or something before letting her in."

"They are still watching her," Sango reminded him.

"Yeah, I know," he waved her off. "But that only makes sense. I didn't expect him to actually let her into the academy this soon. Will you thank him for me?"

"What?" Sango asked, taken aback. "Since when do I do favors for you?"

"Well I'd do it myself, but it might cause a bit of a panic," he said wryly, gesturing to the door of his cell, and Sango had the uncomfortable feeling that he was alluding to how easily he could escape if he wanted to.

"You should be careful, talking like that," she warned him. "It would be easy to move you to a more…high-security building, and you probably wouldn't eat as well there, either."

"Fair enough," he laughed. "But you will, won't you? Not for me if you don't want, but for my sister? She'll be able to have a normal life, even if I never leave this room again."

"As normal as life gets for a shinobi, anyway." Sango remarked, then froze as she realized she had actually just cracked a joke. By the look on his face, Shirotani noticed it, too. It was definitely time to go. "But yeah, I'll tell him." She turned and started walking away, completely forgetting to slide closed the panel on his door.

"Until next time!" came the call from behind her, followed by the guards sliding the panels shut. She grumbled under her breath, but couldn't really say anything since she knew he was right.

O-O-O-O-O-O

"Who are you?" the woman demanded. Her voice was higher pitched than Naruto would have thought, and he re-evaluated his estimation of her age. At first he'd thought she might be in her early twenties, but now he was thinking she was probably closer to his and Ino's age.

"Who are we?" Ino replied indignantly. 'Who are _you_? Are you going to rob us?" she looked pointedly at the girl's hand, still on her sword hilt.

"What?" the girl asked, then realized what Ino was looking at. She yanked her hand away from the sword as if it had burned her. "No! I thought you were part of my brother's gang, is all."

"What would you have done if we were?" Naruto asked, making sure to sound nervous.

"I'd have killed you, of course," the girl said matter-of-factly. "They _do_ rob people like you, and I'm tired of it."

"There's a bandit gang out here?" Ino asked, looking around in fright. Naruto had to fight not to laugh at how convincing she was.

"Worse than bandits," the girl told them, a hard look on her face now. "My brother's a ronin samurai. There aren't many who could stand up to him and his thugs, especially now that ninja escorts are so hard to come by."

"How could you do anything, then?" Naruto asked. The girl simply smirked.

"My brother taught me everything he knew long before he started robbing people. I could take any one of his thugs, easy." She patted her sword affectionately with her left hand.

"Well I'm glad we ran into you and not him, then," Ino said.

"Where are you two going, anyway?" the girl asked. "It's dangerous to be walking unprotected these days. My brother's isn't the only gang out there."

"Well, we couldn't afford a ninja bodyguard, and there wasn't anyone else available," said Ino. "We figured we'd just have to take our chances."

"That's dumb," said the violet-haired ronin. "I can help protect you if you want, but I'd still need to be paid."

"I thought you wanted to fight your brother's gang," Naruto pointed out. He didn't really care one way or the other, though having a samurai bodyguard would serve to aid their disguise a great deal, he reasoned. Plus, the girl was pretty cute, and he wasn't above resorting to eye candy if he couldn't be with the person he wanted for however long this mission would last. He was a student of both Jiraiya and Kakashi, after all.

"Well yeah, but I was just going to let them come to me. If I have to follow you guys around it'll be a lot tougher, plus I may have to fight other bandits too."

"Fair enough," Naruto shrugged. He shared a glance with Ino and she shrugged too, and in his mind he heard her voice say, _"Why not?"_

"We don't have much money, like my girlfriend said, but we can pay for you to eat and have a room and stuff."

"I guess that's okay," the girl said. "It's about as good as I can expect, and it's better than I had a minute ago. I'm Miako, by the way." As she bowed, Naruto once again heard Ino's voice in his head. _"Girlfriend?"_ And though her face remained visibly impassive, he could _sense_ the raised eyebrow that was meant to accompany that comment.

"_It sounded believable,"_ he thought back, even as he was introducing himself to Miako as Natsu. He didn't even know if that was how Ino's jutsu worked, but his assumption proved correct a moment later.

"_What's wrong with being your sister? Or your friend?"_ she asked, while simultaneously greeting their new bodyguard as Nami.

"_We're too close in age to be brother and sister, unless we're twins. And anyway, what's wrong with being my girlfriend?"_ Miako had picked up a small knapsack from the railing of the bridge and the three of them were on their way.

"_Nothing! Except that I'm already someone else's girlfriend."_

"_But you aren't. Well, Nami isn't."_

"_Oh, fine. I'm your girlfriend. But if we end up having to make out or something to keep up the ruse, I'm going to make every hit you ever got from Sakura feel like a mosquito bite."_

"_It'd be worth it," _Naruto teased, and Ino was unable to hide her smirking grin. Miako noticed, however, and Ino was then forced to say she'd been thinking of a funny story, to which she related one of the misadventures Naruto had been sharing with her earlier. By the end of it, Miako was practically in stitches, and Naruto was caught between laughing at himself and sweating in embarrassment, even though Ino had left out the bit where the story was about him.

"So this brother of yours," Naruto said finally, changing the subject. "Why did he become a bandit?"

"It's not something he wanted to do," she answered, her expression sobering immediately. "Not originally, anyway. But it's hard being a ronin. Finding work is tough. Sometimes it can be weeks or even months between jobs. One time, we got an escort job for some merchant after five weeks of nothing. And when the job was over, the guy refused to pay us, so Kenshi held him at sword point and forced him to. He was so angry that he took all the merchant's money instead of just what we were owed. After that, he decided it was easier to take advantage of other people rather than letting them take advantage of him."

"That's awful," Ino said.

"Yeah, but it doesn't make what he's doing right," said Miako. "That one guy deserved it, but everyone else? He's become exactly the same kind of person that he used to protect people from. I couldn't stand it, so I left."

"How do you eat, then?" Naruto asked. "I mean, if it was hard for the two of you to find work, it must be harder for you by yourself, right?"

"Oh, that's easy," Miako grinned. "I just steal from other bandits. If I can't figure out who to give stuff back to, there's not much else I can do but use it myself. And when I do know who stuff belongs to, they're usually grateful enough to let me keep a little bit of it."

"Is that why you were waiting on that bridge, then?" Ino asked.

"Yeah," Miako nodded. "Thanks to my brother's training, his is the strongest gang around here, so most of the others have left. They travel this road a lot, since they feel like they own it. They pretty much do." Naruto and Ino exchanged glances again. Running into Miako could very well have been a great stroke of luck for them. If anyone attacked, she could hopefully fight them off without the two ninja having to blow their cover.

"It's lucky we ran into you, then," Ino said kindly.

"It really is," Miako agreed, though there was no arrogance or pride in her tone, merely stating the facts. "I don't think a day goes by that someone isn't robbed on this road these days. And it's lucky for me, too, since even if I don't run into any of them, I still get to eat tonight." She smiled brightly at this thought.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Konohamaru was practically dancing he was so anxious. Already Hanabi had asked if he needed to use the bathroom, and Iwashi-sensei had given up telling him to calm down, instead opting to chat with a few of his colleagues. They'd been told yesterday to report for their first C-rank mission at 8:00 on the button, and Konohamaru was so excited he'd arrived 45 minutes early. And despite that she'd met him on the way in, Hanabi seemed much more in control of herself as they waited for their final teammate.

"It's not as if she's late," Hanabi reminded him when he complained about Moegi's absence yet again. "It's still seven minutes until 8:00."

"So? We came early," Konohamaru countered.

"That's because I was raised to always be early, and because you're more excited about this than a five year-old at his birthday. Moegi never cared as much as either of us did about getting a C-rank mission."

"She didn't?" the young Sarutobi asked, stunned by this revelation. Not only had he not known this about Moegi, but he wasn't aware Hanabi knew much of anything about Moegi. They never really spent any time together outside missions or training that he saw.

Hanabi, for her part, just sighed and shook her head. It was with a pitying look in her eyes that she explained to him, "No. If you bothered to look past your own feelings for a change, you'd see she only really wants one because you do. If you want my opinion, I think she's nervous about it. She knows she's not as strong a shinobi as you or I are."

"Well that might be true, but she's still good!" Konohamaru defended his friend…from herself, he realized as soon as he said it. Weird. "Does she really worry about that? She never said anything to me."

Hanabi rolled her eyes. "Of course she didn't. She didn't want you to feel guilty over her insecurities. They're hers to deal with, after all."

"But I'm her friend! And we're a team! If she feels like she's being left behind we should help her. And if you knew about this, you should have said something."

"I didn't realize I had to," said Hanabi. Then she paused for a moment. "But maybe I should have. Father warned me not to take my insight for granted. I sometimes forget that others can't pick up on the things we Hyuuga can."

"That's fair, I guess," Konohamaru conceded. "Grandpa used to say the same thing. 'Just because something comes easy to you doesn't mean it comes easy to everyone else.' Then he told me to have patience."

"A lesson that to this day doesn't seem to have sunk in," Hanabi teased, smirking.

Konohamaru was about to fire off a retort when Moegi appeared in a flash, a bit short of breath.

"I'm here!" she announced. "I'm not late, am I?"

"Right on time, Moegi," Iwashi-sensei announced calmly, striding back toward them from the conversation he'd been having with a few other jounin on the other side of the courtyard. "Let's go in, shall we?"

They entered the admin building, and were met by the familiar sight of the mission assignments board. Less usual was the Hokage's presence among them; she had been delegating this type of work for the last few weeks due to other responsibilities regarding the war. Understandably, Konohamaru felt. Seeing her there now served to jack his excitement up another notch. It was like their mission really was a big deal, even though it was only C-rank.

"Let's get started," the Hokage said as soon as they were all inside. She addressed their captain first. "Iwashi, I don't need to tell you what's at stake here. Only three genin teams have currently been cleared for this type of mission. I had some reservations about yours, seeing as they're rookies, but your reports and Iruka's recommendation makes them look like the best option we have at the moment, rookie or not. Konohamaru swelled with pride, and though he could tell Hanabi was trying to hold back any outward sign of the same, he could sense her standing up just a little straighter next to him. He spared a glance at Moegi, who still just looked nervous.

"Understood, Hokage-sama," Iwashi-sensei said. "I'd be worried about sending rookie genin on such a mission myself if it were anyone but these three. They can handle it, I've no doubt."

"That's good to hear," the Hokage smiled. "Now then, let's get to it." She reached down and pulled out a small package, holding it up for them to see. It was about the size of Konohamaru's foot. "This is a delivery of scented oils for the resort town up the river," she said, and Konohamaru felt himself deflate at once. All this for a delivery?

"Ordinarily, this would be a D-rank mission," Iruka-sensei put in. "As there's no sensitive information or cargo, and no human charges, the risk is minimal. However, the bounty placed on all Konoha ninja by the Tsuchikage has increased the threat. As we've already seen, genin teams are not immune and may even be considered easy pickings by the enemy and any bounty hunters in the area." That got Konohamaru's attention again. Maybe this wouldn't be boring after all.

"We can't allow ourselves to be intimidated," said a third administrator Konohamaru didn't recognize. "And what's more, we still need a source of income, what with our usual revenue streams all but dried up as we focus our assets on the war."

"And of course we need our genin teams to have field experience outside the village, so it's worth the risk," Tsunade-sama finished.

"What if we do meet up with enemies?" Hanabi asked suddenly. "Or bounty hunters?"

"You would be the one to see it, Hanabi-chan," the Hokage grinned. She pulled out three scrolls from beneath the desk. "That is when you'll use these."

O-O-O-O-O-O

Neji tapped his foot idly as he waited under a tree outside the latest village his teammates had entered. Kakashi leaned against it next to him and by all appearances could have been asleep, though Neji knew better. They were waiting for Naruto's clone to arrive to hear his report, and an explanation.

As if thinking of the blond had summoned him, Naruto appeared before them. "Hey," he said by way of greeting.

"You're late," Kakashi observed, and Neji rolled his eyes.

"No I'm not," Naruto scoffed, mimicking Neji's expression. "You say that every time, but even if you catch me once, it's not like it's going to make us even or something."

"Yes, well,' interjected Neji, knowing from experience that the two of them could go on for quite a while. "First things first. Who's that woman you're traveling with? A contact? A suspected enemy?"

"Ha! No. That's Miako-chan. She's our bodyguard now."

Whatever answer Neji had been expecting, it wasn't that. Nor, it seemed, had Kakashi. "Your what?" he asked.

"She's a ronin samurai," Naruto explained. "She says there's bandits all over this road, so we hired her to protect us."

"I see," said Kakashi, and Neji had to admire the simplistic brilliance of it. If they were attacked by bandits, this Mia would be able to fight them off, preserving their cover. And even if they weren't, having a bodyguard was a good way to not look like shinobi.

"Can we trust her?" Neji asked, just to be sure.

"Ino-chan says so, and she seems all right to me." Neji nodded. If a Yamanaka was comfortable with it, that was good enough for him for the time being.

"Any leads in the village?" Kakashi asked.

"Hard to say," was the response. "We're going to check out the warehouse district tomorrow. And there was an apartment above one of the shops in the square that looked kind of fishy. I figured I'd send in a clone to check it out."

"No need. Point out the building in question and I'll investigate while you focus on the warehouse district," Neji said. Naruto nodded, and a few more details were hashed out for the next day's plans before Naruto's clone vanished in a puff of smoke, off to repeat the briefing to Ino. Neji then turned to his senpai and expressed the concerns he'd been harboring for the past several days.

"It seems to be going too smoothly," he said.

"I agree, but it's too early to worry about that just yet. It could mean trouble, or it could just be luck. And it's possible our enemy is going about this the same way we are and haven't reached this far south." Neji knew that was a possibility, but also knew as well as Kakashi did that it wasn't the most likely. "Plan for the worst, but never dwell on it," the copy-ninja said after a long pause. It sounded like a quote.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Honda Kyonkichi was on tentative alert as he led his team into the Hidden Sand Village. Though not in danger of attack from their allies within, the entire plan depended on their ability to enter unseen by any enemy observers.

As one of the few jounin hailing from the Hidden Steam, it often fell to Kyonkichi to lead missions such as this, of a highly sensitive nature. The village leaders had all but leapt at the chance to be of assistance to their most powerful ally, and had agreed to send him almost before they even knew what they'd be sending him for.

It wasn't something he was looking forward to. If the enemy turned out to be who everyone suspected, he and his men were not in for an easy time of it. Still, they were better equipped to deal with that particular man more than most. The other possibility was that they would be facing someone else entirely, in which case they were in no better a position than anyone else would have been.

Spotting an abandoned storage building, he led his team in and set them to placing security seals around all entrances. It was only when the last of his subordinates reported in fifteen minutes later that he finally allowed himself to relax just a little bit.

"Everything is secure, sir." Haru, a chuunin like the other two members of his team, was nonetheless highly qualified and experienced. With so few jounin to spare, Kyon was pleased with the squad he now led.

"Good. Get some rest while you can. We're going to be busy here." Kyon bit his thumb and pressed it to the ground.

_Kuchiyose no jutsu!_

A small, orange cat wearing a dark vest appeared.

"What's up, boss?" the cat asked.

"Kino, we've arrived in Sunagakure. I need you to make your way to the Kazekage's office and let him know we're here. Only him, got it? And make sure nobody sees you."

"Hey, who are you talking to?" the cat named Kino asked, pretending to be offended. "Only way someone sees me is if I want them to; eye jutsu be damned. "

"Okay, okay, I know,' Kyon indulged his summon. "Just be careful, all right? We don't know if the enemy has infiltrated the village yet or not, so we need to assume they have."

"Gotcha, boss. Any other messages?"

"That's it. But he'll probably have some instructions for us, so hurry back when you get them."

"Roger!" The ninja cat vanished with a swish of his tail, and Kyon sat down to rest. He couldn't afford to sleep just yet, but getting off his feet would be a good start. He pulled out a ration bar and took a bite, wondering just how long he was going to be stuck here waiting for a man to try to kill him.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Ino lay awake late that night, unable to go to sleep. Really, this could not have happened at a worse time. Her emotions were still on a high from her farewell night with Shikamaru, and her hormones were just starting to feel his absence. What's more, she was realizing truly for the first time what a fun guy Naruto actually was. It certainly didn't make the situation any less awkward.

A shifting and a groan from her left told her that her bedmate wasn't having any easier a time of this than she was. Good. Served him right.

"You idiot," she grumbled, certain now that Miako was asleep in the next room. "This is all your fault, you know. You _had_ to say we were dating, didn't you? You couldn't just say we were friends, or brother and sister, or literally _anything else_ other than that we were sleeping together."

"I'm sorry!" he wailed. Well actually he whispered it, but his intent was clear. "I didn't think about this part!"

"Obviously," Ino said, rolling her eyes. "Well it's too late to do anything about it now; it would be too suspicious."

"At least it's you and not Sakura-chan," Naruto sighed. Ino suppressed a giggle. Now that would have been something to see. She remembered how tense Shikamaru had been the time they shared a bed on their mission to Amagakure, and Naruto was ten times as neurotic about that sort of thing as her boyfriend was. For that matter, she remembered her own feelings at that time – how she had been both terrified and exhilarated while remaining outwardly calm – and knew that Sakura would have been in much the same boat.

"Well, it probably would have been a lot more awkward, you're right about that," she obliged him. Then she grinned. "But I bet you both would have enjoyed it a lot more, too."

"Ino-chan!" he complained, but she knew that was his way of admitting she was right. When she had first begun teasing him about her best friend, he'd always become flustered and embarrassed. Now that he'd gotten used to it though, he tended to play along. It was fun.

"What, are you saying you wouldn't?" she prodded.

"Of course I would," he said. "But it would also be _really_ awkward and I'd worry that she'd be uncomfortable."

"Oh, she would be," Ino affirmed, then nearly burst out laughing at the crestfallen look on his face. "But in a good way," she assured him. His face screwed up in puzzlement.

"What does that even mean?"

"It means she'd be feeling the same as you about it, minus the worrying about you not liking it."

"You really think so?" hope gleamed in his eyes. It was really rather adorable.

"Naruto, if Sakura were some random girl I barely knew I'd think so, and she's my best friend. Trust me, watching you two dance around each other is like reading one of Jiraiya's books without the dirty parts. There's even a pool going as to when you'll finally get together."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Kiba started it last year. Everyone we graduated with is in on it, and a lot of the older shinobi as well."

"I…don't really know how I feel about that," said Naruto after a pause.

"I probably shouldn't have told you," she admitted. "And I know I shouldn't have told you about Sakura's feelings. That's really her business. But the two of you seriously need a push and I've just about given up on her."

"Maybe you shouldn't," Naruto said with a far-off look in his eye, as if he were remembering something. This intrigued Ino, who pounced on the potential for new developments.

"What? Why? Did she say something?" She failed miserably to contain her excitement, which clearly amused her blond friend.

"Didn't you just say it was her business?" he asked.

"Well, I mean..." she backpedaled, "If you already _know_ how she feels, I feel a little less guilty telling you about it. But I still say you two need some nudging in the right direction."

Now he smirked. "Why? What do you have in the pool?"

"That…that's not important," she stammered.

"Uh-huh."

"Oh fine, if you must know, I wasn't allowed in. They said I was in too strong a position to influence the results, so they made me the judge."

"Well they got that part right, didn't they?" Naruto laughed. "What does Shikamaru have?"

"Wh…How dare you? I'd never do something like that! I'll have you know I take my job as relationship-betting judge _very_ seriously." He was still looking at her skeptically, so she added, "Besides, I don't know what anybody has. They were all secret ballots. My job was to collect them and determine when a relationship starts, and only then do we look at the entries to see who came closest."

"If they're secret ballots, what if more than one person guessed the same?"

"Then they'd split the winnings. That probably won't happen, though. People were allowed to be specific, with things like 'Sakura will make the first move' or 'It'll happen on a mission', stuff like that. If two people guess the same time but somebody has more specifics correct, they win."

"But how will you know any of those things if you're not there?" Naruto asked. Ino gave him a pitying look.

"Naruto, please. Do you really think Sakura wouldn't tell me the very next day if something like the two of you getting together happened?"

"You mean like how you told her right away after you and Shikamaru –"

"I _thought_ we weren't talking about that," she growled over him through gritted teeth.

"Fine, fine," he surrendered. "We really should get some sleep though, don't you think?"

Ino face-faulted. "The whole reason we're having this discussion in the first place is because neither one of us _could_ sleep, remember?"

"Yeah, I know," he nodded. "But somehow it feels less weird now, you know?"

Ino blinked. He was right. Somehow the awkward tension had been lifted. She smiled and shook her head, then said, "I don't know how you do it." She was asleep within minutes.

She awoke the next morning to sunlight streaming in through the window, and Naruto gently shaking her shoulder.

"Nami-chan, wake up," he said. So Miako was in the room – or at least within earshot.

"Mm, what time is it?" She grumbled, making sure to put on an air of sleepiness. It wasn't difficult.

"Just after 7:00, Nami-san," Miako said, coming into the room. "Natsu-san said the two of you wanted to visit the warehouse district today, and I was hoping you could talk him out of it."

"Oh? Why?" she asked innocently.

"That's the part of town where people like my brother hang out. It's not a safe place to be walking around."

"That's why we have you, Miako-san," Naruto grinned brightly. It was bizarre; Ino didn't think she'd ever heard him talk to anyone so politely before. Miako, however, didn't share her fascination with Naruto's manners. Her face fell.

"I don't know if I'll be able to protect you if we're ambushed by a whole gang in their own headquarters," she said frankly.

"It's all right," Ino assured her. "We trust you. And besides, we need to visit that part of town; it's the whole reason we came here in the first place."

"Hey, now that's something," Miako said. "Why _are_ you here? I'd thought you were on vacation or something, but old empty warehouses aren't exactly a tourist spot or a romantic getaway. I'd thought you were going to the next town to visit the spa or something."

Ino mastered the impulse to catch Naruto's eye instead swiftly answered, "We're looking for someone."

"Someone?" asked Miako.

"Yes. It's someone…very important to us. We…we've been trying not to draw attention to ourselves. That's why we were traveling alone, you see. We knew it was dangerous, but we didn't really have any other choice. But now that you're with us, Miako-san, I'm sure we'll find him."

"This person…do you know where he is? Or she is?"

"No," replied Naruto sadly. "This will be the fourth town we've checked, and with what you said about bandits, it's not looking good. But we can't give up."

"That's why you want to check the warehouse district, isn't it?" Miako guessed. "You think bandits have taken this person there."

This time Ino and Naruto very deliberately shared a look. Then they both nodded and Ino said, "That's right. We're sorry we didn't tell you, Miako-san. After all, you'd be putting your life on the line, too."

"If you don't want to come, we understand," Naruto added.

Miako pursed her lips for a moment and appeared to be thinking, then shook her head. "No, I'll come with you. Of course I will! I can't abandon you now and besides, I might get a chance to take out a few of those low-lives while we're at it. If I'm lucky, they'll be from my idiot brother's gang."

O-O-O-O-O-O

The sun was just peeking over the tops of the buildings in the village square when Naruto, Ino and Miako strode through it. In lieu of a proper breakfast they opted on some grilled squid that they could eat while they walked. Well, Ino and Miako opted for it. Naruto had to be talked into it when he'd spotted a ramen stand next door.

"We don't have time, Natsu-kun," Ino had said sweetly, while discretely giving him a look telling him to keep his head in the game. And so he sighed as he bit into his second squid, dreaming of the ramen that got away.

"Natusu-san seems upset," Miako observed. "Do you think we should have gotten ramen after all?"

Naruto perked up for a moment, but Ino just laughed. "He's always like that," the blonde kunoichi said. "He'd eat ramen three meals a day every day of his life if he could. He'll be fine."

Naruto grumbled, but Miako giggled at his displeasure and they kept walking. The warehouse district was coming into view. The ones nearest the rest of the village had lots of foot traffic going in and out, and they were clearly still in use. However, Naruto could see a ways down the road and noticed that the buildings in the distance were not so well taken care of, and there was hardly a soul in sight. Obviously the area of town that held the abandoned warehouses was avoided by the general population. A perfect hideout for bandits. Or, Naruto reminded himself, enemy ninja.

The closer they came to the dilapidated structures, the more agitated Miako became. First she stopped laughing, then she stopped smiling altogether. By the time they'd passed out of the area where other people still ventured, she was gritting her teeth and gripping her sword hilt with knuckles turned white.

"Wh-what should we do?" Ino asked with excellently nervous airs.

"If there are bandits here," Miako began, "and I'd bet my sword there are, we're safer confronting them out on the street rather than in one of the buildings. The trick is getting them to come out." She was eying the windows and doors as if any one of them could spew forth an army of brigands ready to take them down.

Naruto sensed it just as Ino did. She brushed the back of his hand and they made eye contact quickly enough that the preoccupied Miako didn't notice. In the buildings to the left and right, already on their way out, hopefully no more than Miako could handle on her own. Because on the roof…

"How about we just come out on our own, Miako-chan?" a large, bald man sneered as he led a band of four armed men out of the right building. He had a vertical scar on the left side of his face, from his brow down to his chin and going right over his eye. He carried a spiked cudgel, of all things, and a nasty grin. From the building opposite, four more men appeared, one of them carrying a bow and quiver. Unless Miako could throw her sword like a boomerang, Naruto didn't see how they were going to get out of this one with their cover intact.

"Eek!" Ino squealed as soon as the men appeared, clinging on to him for all the world like a frightened girlfriend would.

"_Naruto, the roof…" _

"_I know, but unless they make a move…"_

"What do you want, Tano?" Miako snarled at the bald man, interrupting their mental conversation.

"What do you think, you little bitch? I want your friends' money, and I want you dead. It's just my lucky day that I can have both at once. Kenshi'll love it."

"You think my brother will be happy if you kill me?" Miako scoffed. "Go ahead and try; see how that works out for you."

"Oh he'll be sad," the man named Tano said. "But you see, I tried everything to get you to come to your senses and rejoin us, but there was no reasoning with you. You went berserk and tried to kill my men; I had no choice. Kenshi will understand."

"You bastard. Come try me. I'll kill you in one stroke."

"Not if I break your sword, I bet," Tano countered, holding up his cudgel. Naruto could see now that the spikes were not only meant for offense, but they were curved to catch an incoming blade as well. "But I don't think it will come to that," the banded leader continued. "I'll just have Bura shoot you and that'll be that." He gave a signal to his archer, who nocked an arrow.

"Natsu-san, Nami-san, get behind me," Miako ordered, right hand still firm on her sword hilt.

"Miako-san…" Naruto began, not sure what he was going to say, but fast coming to the conclusion that he and Ino would have to break cover if they wanted their friend to live. The swordswoman, however, gave him a stern look and said, "Trust me." So he did.

Hardly had the two shinobi moved behind their bodyguard when the tell-tale _twang_ of a bowstring rang out through the alley. Then something remarkable happened. Naruto heard a swooshing sound, and Miako jerked as if about to move, but nothing appeared to happen. That is, until a moment later when two halves of an arrow shaft whizzed by harmlessly on either side of her and fell limply to the street. Miako's draw was so fast that even his shinobi reflexes could not follow it. Ino shrieked again and passed out in his arms. Well, at least that was one problem taken care of. Now if only Miako could kick these guys' asses as easily as she cut that arrow, they'd be in business.

"I really hope that wasn't your whole plan," Miako taunted Tano with mock sweetness.

Tano bared his teeth, but rather than wasted time with a retort, he simply yelled, "Kill them!" and six of his men charged toward Miako, while the archer drew another arrow. Naruto was slowly carrying Ino back and to the side while he watched. Miako remained perfectly still until the first thug was nearly upon her, at which time she uncoiled like a spring. The first attacker fell at once and the two halves of his body fell apart upon hitting the ground in a splash of blood, by which time Miako had already parried the strike of a second foe and taken off the head of a third.

"If this is the best Kenshi can do, he's lost his knack for training," the ronin quipped as she cut down two more men and offhandedly swiped another arrow out of the air. The two men remaining seemed to have a slightly higher level of skill, as Miako had simply been blocking their strikes up until this point, but now she could focus her attention solely on them.

"Kill her, you idiots!" Tano howled. "It's just one woman!" The two men split apart with their swords held out, preparing to take her from both sides. The second they were positioned on opposite sides, they both struck.

Miako spun and managed to parry one attack while dodging the other, the result being she merely swapped which side of her each man was standing on. This time she took the initiative and lashed out at the man on her dominant side, forcing him to block. The other tried to seize the opportunity to cut her from behind, but a blind parry from Miako knocked him off-balance. She swung at the man in front again, knocking his sword away and breaking through his defense.

Another _twang_. Miako slashed through the opening in front of her, slitting the man's throat, and then jerked her sword back at an odd tilt, deflecting the arrow at the precise angle needed to send it into the other man's neck, ending the fight. Now it was only Tano and Bura the archer, who was looking a bit sick at essentially shooting one of his cohorts.

"Well?" Miako asked, wiping her sword clean and replacing it in its sheath with a casual flourish. "Care to try your luck, Tano?"

"You horrid bitch," the bald thug seethed. "You killed my men. I'll gut you!"

With the hand not holding his cudgel, he drew a long, double-edged straight dagger and began stalking toward Miako. Naruto had to resist shaking his head in disbelief; that was the absolute worst way he could have approached an opponent like her.

"When I get done with you, I won't even have to worry about what to tell Kenshi, because there'll be no way to identify you. I'm going to cut off every last one of your – "

He was cut off as he was…well, cut off. Miako was already cleaning her sword again when the two pieces of Tano hit the ground.

"Gods, I thought he'd never shut up," she said, and turned her eye on Bura the archer, who had clearly been hoping she'd forgotten about him.

"Miako-san, please," he said, even as she took a step toward him. "I'll go. You don't have to kill me. Please." He was drawing an arrow and backstepping at the same time, though his hands were shaking so much he was having trouble nocking it.

"Wish I could," Miako shrugged as she walked. "But you'll just go running back to my brother and keep on doing what you've been doing. You made your choice when you became a bandit. Now deal with it."

"I…I…" he fired an arrow, which she swatted away. He fumbled for another one. "Please!" Naruto almost felt bad for the guy, but he knew that if the situation were reversed, the bandit wouldn't think twice. He couldn't stand people who were willing to kill others but backed down the second their own life was on the line. And so he said nothing and watched Miako swat a second arrow away.

"It'll be quick," she promised. "I'm not like you and your friends who enjoy this kind of thing." He'd nocked another arrow just as she stepped into melee range. He made to draw, but she reached up with her left hand and took hold of bow and arrow both. Naruto heard the arrow shaft snap as she tightened her grip, and she twisted the bow out of his grip and tossed it aside. He was going for the knife in his belt when her blade took him.

"It looked like you enjoyed that a little, Miako-san," Naruto couldn't help saying. She _had_ toyed with the guy more than was strictly necessary.

Miako smiled a shrugged. "You're probably right and I usually don't, but I grant myself a little leeway when it comes to people who try to murder me."

"Fair enough, I guess. Thanks, by the way. That was amazing." He didn't even have to be in character to say that; it really had been.

"Don't mention it. Is Nami-san okay?" She jerked her head at Ino, still lying unconscious in his arms. As if on cue, a yell rang out from the roof above.

"Die, bitch!" A man whose state of dress didn't quite match the others had leapt off the roof at Miako, holding what appeared to be a kunai. Naruto quirked his eyebrow; that was an interesting way of handling it.

Of course the man fell to either side of Miako, who had to clean her sword yet again. Coincidentally, Ino chose that exact moment to wake up.

"Got 'em," she whispered.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Konohamaru was a pile of nerves. His heart was pounding harder than it had the time he drank two full pots of extra strong tea. His stomach was clenched into knots that would take a week to undo, and he was pretty sure he'd ground at least to millimeters off his teeth. He longed to clutch the scroll concealed in his vest pocket, but knew he couldn't risk drawing any attention to it. As a result he couldn't find anything to do with his hands, so every forty seconds or so he'd reach into his kunai pouch just to fiddle with them before clenching his fist, taking a deep breath and starting all over again.

His teammates were having a hard time as well. Hanabi was better at not showing it, but he could tell she was wound up by the way she kept activating her _byakugan_ every couple of minutes. Also, a thin sheen of sweat was accumulating on her brow.

Moegi was practically a wreck. She was visibly more tense than Konohamaru, and she was so pale she looked ill. Konohamaru knew that Iwashi-sensei would look after them if anything happened, but all the same he knew he'd have to protect his friend. He caught Hanabi's eye when he knew she could see him – she had her _byakugan _up – and jerked his head slightly in Moegi's direction. He then looked pointedly at Hanabi and then down at himself. She nodded almost imperceptibly; message received.

Then things happened suddenly, as catastrophes tend to do. Hanabi yelled, "Look out!", Iwashi vanished, a smoke bomb exploded at his feet, and a man with a triangular blade mounted on his forearm dashed right for Moegi.

The smoke spread too fast for him to see what happened to his teammate, but he heard her give a yelp that cut off short. Fearing the worst but with no time to dwell on it, he drew a kunai and prepared to defend himself.

Less than a second later the smoke was blown away, and Konohamaru looked to see Hanabi performing her _kaiten_. It was a good thing too, because along with the smoke a giant shuriken was blown off course that would have taken his head off. Also, he noticed, Iwashi had intercepted the man attacking Moegi, apparently having performed a _kawarimi_ with his own student.

"Move!" Hanabi shouted at him, and leapt away. He obeyed without thinking, and jumped clear as well. In the air, he saw a metal ball with three small claws flying toward him. It was attached to a chain. With pinpoint precision, he managed to deflect it with his kunai. Had he been off by even a centimeter, the claws could have disarmed him, or he could have been caught in the chain.

"Your scrolls!" Iwashi cried, still fending off the man with a blade on his arm. Cursing himself, Konohamaru whipped the scroll out of his vest and unfurled it on the ground. He had no idea what it did, but had been given explicit instructions on what to do with it. There was a large seal upon which he placed his hands, channeled chakra into and cried, _"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"_

As soon as he'd said it, Aburame Shino appeared in front of him. Not a moment too soon either, because they clawed ball was coming back.

"Help your teammates and get clear," Shino ordered him and parried the ball and chain. Deciding he would process just what the hell was going on later, he looked over to where Hanabi was barely managing to keep a kunoichi off her. She hadn't been able to draw her scroll yet. Iwashi was now battling two opponents, and he had no idea where Moegi was.

Not allowing himself to hesitate, he dashed toward Hanabi. He knew that even Iwashi couldn't hold out forever if his opponents were jounin, and the only way to help would be Hanabi's scroll, which presumably had another leaf jounin hidden in it, however that worked. He threw a kunai and two shuriken at the enemy kunoichi, who swatted them away and continued attacking Hanabi. He was about to get desperate and charge her in a melee attack when Yuuhi Kurenai came flying in out of nowhere. In a flash she was between Hanabi and the enemy ninja and Konohamaru learned where she came from moments later when Moegi appeared next to him.

"Is Hanabi-chan okay?" she asked, gasping for breath.

"I think so," he answered. "We should go help her." Indeed Hanabi appeared quite dazed now that her life was not in immediate danger. She'd fallen back on her rear and was just now starting to recover even as he and Moegi reached her.

"Don't let the last girl use her scroll!" Cried the man fighting Shino. "They're summoning jounin! It's a trap!"

Immediately one of the ninja fighting Iwashi broke away and went straight for Hanabi, who was not yet steady on her feet.  
"Get her!" Konohamaru yelled to Moegi, then placed himself in the enemy's path. Sending up a silent prayer, he formed the seal for the first special technique anyone had ever taught him. _Oiroke no jutsu!_

The naked woman he became distracted the enemy for a split second – long enough for Moegi to get Hanabi clear. Together they grouped up to face off against their opponent together.

"What the hell was that?" Hanabi asked as she whipped the scroll out of her pocket.

"A technique Naruto-niichan taught me a long time ago."

Hanabi was preparing to unfurl the scroll when that clawed ball on a chain whipped in again and snatched it away, hurling it into the trees off the side of the road.

"Of course he had to throw it to that side!" Moegi griped. "He couldn't throw it to the other side where it's just a big open field!"

"It's all right, I saw where it went!" Hanabi said. "Can you two cover me until I get it."

"Count on us," Konohamaru said. Moegi just nodded firmly. Hanabi dashed toward the trees and the two of them created three clones apiece and followed her. It wouldn't fool anybody for more than a second or two, but they'd already proven that could be enough.

Unfortunately, their enemy had already gotten ahead of them and dropped down in front of Hanabi, poised to strike. Moegi performed a jutsu that fired a small electric bolt at the enemy ninja, even as his axe cut through the log Hanabi had switched with. When Moegi's bolt hit, the man's image just sort of faded away and some kind of instinct told Konohamaru to duck, which he just managed to do under the axe that swung down from behind him. He stabbed upward with a kunai but the man was already gone. The clawed ball was swinging down at him again and rather than block it or dodge he reached out with his left hand and grabbed it. The claws cut into his flesh a little but it wasn't deep.

The man with the chain was quick to adapt however, and yanked hard, jerking Konohamaru into the air. He could not see Moegi, Hanabi or the man with the axe, but he did see an opportunity. As he flew through the air, before his pilot could do anything else with him, he reached down and looped the chain over itself about a foot from the ball and jammed a kunai in it, thus throwing off the weight. He let go with his other hand and continued on his arc toward the forest even as the chain flopped awkwardly downward. He had no doubt its wielder would correct this problem momentarily, but he had created an opening for Shino, who was quick to exploit it.

Before Konohamaru even made contact with the tree he was hurtling toward, the leaf jounin had exploded in a flurry of bugs. The enemy ninja was attempting to undo Konohamaru's sabotage when a barrage of senbon descended on him from seemingly every direction. He managed to dodge or block most of them, but a few hit home. Konohamaru made contact with the tree and was about to spring back to help Shino when the leaf jounin appeared below him and held up a hand.

"Hold," he said. "There is no need. This man is already defeated."

"How do you figure that?" the enemy sneered, drawing up his now functional chain. "A few senbon? I suppose they were poisoned. Bad luck for you I happen to be the one shinobi in the entire Hidden Ash village who's completely immune to poison. It doesn't even matter what secret mixture you used. It won't have any effect on me at all."

"It is fortunate I didn't use poison, then," Shino said. The Ash ninja looked slightly taken aback, but still unconcerned. Then Shino continued. "On the end of each of those senbon was a tiny egg pouch. Each one contained hundreds of eggs for a parasitic bug that feeds on human organs. Particularly the heart. As the eggs were injected directly into your bloodstream and hatched immediately afterward, I estimate you have approximately seventeen seconds to live."

"WHAT?" the Ash ninja was definitely concerned now.

"I was unable to penetrate your defenses until Konohamaru here provided me with an opportunity." He gestured up into the tree. "I commend your skill with that weapon." Sadly, even the best of us can be defeated by something as small as a snag in a chain."

No sooner had he said this than the Ash ninja fell to his knees, clutching at his chest. He gasped and coughed, and Konohamaru could see blood dripping from his eyes, nose and mouth. Whether the man died right then or in another eight seconds as Shino predicted, he did not find out. A scream from the forest reminded him that his two teammates were still in there.

Shino dashed into the woods, and Konohamaru bolted to the ground to follow him. He paused at the defeated ninja's chain, deciding on impulse to take it with him. It had served the other man well after all, and Konohamaru needed a way to fight from a distance.

He picked it up and pulled both ends to him, only to discover that the weapon was, in fact, a _kusarigama_. That explained a lot. He grasped the hilt of the kama in his right hand and took hold of the chain in his left, and ran after Shino toward his team.

When he arrived, hell had broken loose. Shattered stones and tree trunks were everywhere. Bugs were flying all over the place and he could not see Shino. Worst of all was Moegi, lying in a pool of blood with Shizune – apparently summoned from Hanabi's scroll – working frantically over her. Hanabi was unconscious by one of the broken rocks, and a trickle of blood ran down her forehead, but he could see her chest rising and falling.

"You won't get us all so easily!" The Ash ninja with the axe bellowed. Konohamaru could only see him for seconds at a time as he bounced around trying to kill Shino. He looked down at the clawed ball dangling out of his left hand. He had no idea how to use this weapon, but it was better than nothing. He'd only get one shot at this. He took cover in a bush and began twirling it to throw. He waited until the enemy was within range and had taken another leap, then let fly.

Miraculously, the clawed ball wrapped itself around the enemy's ankle, stopping him short in his leap and slamming him to the ground. In the fraction of a second it took for him to recover, Kurenai landed on him and drove a kunai into the back of his neck.

Konohamaru retracted the chain immediately and readied himself for another assault, but there was silence. Kurenai looked over at him and said, "He was the last of them." Shino appeared next to her then, and they discussed something briefly before the Aburame vanished once more.

"That was a nice move with the kusarigama," Kurenai told him kindly as he made his way over to her, somewhat in a haze. His mind was telling him that if Moegi was dead, Shizune wouldn't still be trying to save her, but it was also telling him that human beings probably didn't have much more blood than what he was seeing around his friend.

Kurenai then turned to the other jounin kunoichi in the new clearing and asked, "Will she make it, Shizune?"

"I can't say for certain," was the answer that jabbed a knife through Konohamaru's gut. "I've stopped the bleeding and closed the wound, but she's lost a lot of blood and there was significant internal damage. I need to get her back to Konoha as quickly as possible."

"Shino or I can do that," Kurenai said. "You're still needed here. Iwashi needs help too. Shino's bringing him now. And Hanabi-chan looks like she took a hit as well."

"She hit her head on that rock," Shizune explained, still keeping her focus on Moegi. "I doubt there was any serious damage done, but she likely has a concussion. We need to wake her up."

"I'll do it," Konohamaru volunteered, grateful for something he could do to help at last. He sped over to his other fallen teammate and crouched down next to her. Aside from the bruise on her cheek, the cut on her forehead, and the lump that was undoubtedly forming on the back of her skull she seemed all right. Thank all that was holy for that.

"Hanabi-chan," he called softly, shaking her gently. "Hanabi-chan wake up." She moaned slightly but did not rouse, so he put a little more force into his voice. "Hanabi-chan, you have to wake up. You have a concussion. Wake up, dammit. Wake up!" He was almost shouting by the end, but Hanabi's eyelids fluttered open and she slowly managed to focus in on him.

"Konohamaru?" she murmured. Then she gasped in panic. "Moegi!" She tried to jerk upright, but he held her down, lest she pass out again. "Konohamaru! It's Moegi! I think she's…she's…" tears came to the young Hyuuga's eyes and Konohamaru noticed that his own were a bit wet also.

"She's not dead," he told her as calmly as he could. "Not yet, anyway. Shizune-sensei said she might make it if we can get her back to Konoha."

"Oh thank heaven," Hanabi wailed. "It was my fault. I was too slow summoning Shizune-sensei and Moegi tried to protect me. I thought he'd cut her in half!" She was sobbing almost uncontrollably now, and it was a bit unsettling but also a relief, to know that Hanabi could feel such emotions like anyone else. She always seemed so distant that he'd begun to wonder if she was just cold. But seeing her now, a complete wreck, his heart went out to her.

"Shh," he soothed, trying to calm her down. "It'll be all right. Shizune-sensei is awesome, and once we get her back home, the Hokage will save her for sure." Hanabi nodded but cried on, and somehow he found himself holding her to comfort her. Of course he also had to periodically make sure she wasn't going back to sleep. It was strange; worrying about Hanabi was the only thing keeping him from losing it about Moegi like she was.

He looked down at the kusarigami that still sat on the ground next to them. He'd set it down to wake her. He was going to keep that weapon, and train with it every day until it was as natural to him as his arms. And he was going to get Naruto to teach him the _kage-bunshin _ and _rasengan_ like he promised. Konohamaru was going to do everything in his power and beyond to make sure that _**no one **_ever hurt his girls again.

O-O-O-O-O-O

O-O-O-O-O-O

O-O-O-O-O-O

You know that scene in _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix _where Tonks, Moody, Kingsley and Lupin appear out of white smoke to save the day in the Department of Mysteries? For those of you who do, the swelling music that plays there is what I imagined in my head when Shino, Kurenai and Shizune emerge from the summoning scrolls.

As far as what the hell Ino was doing and the whole bit with the roof, you can probably figure it out, but it will be (briefly) clarified in the next chapter just in case, so don't worry about that.

And lastly, for those of you who don't know, a _kusarigama_ is a weighted metal ball on a chain attached to a kama (a small, hand-held scythe). You've probably seen them before even if you didn't know what they were called.

That's it. Review if the notion strikes you. And know that every single one is extraordinarily appreciated.


End file.
